Gundula Holbrook, nurtured the legacy of her husband who was awarded the Victoria Cross – obituary
When an Australian town was named after her husband she donated his medals and paid for a memorial
Gundula Holbrook
Gundula Holbrook, who has died aged 106, was a last link with stirring events of the First World War. On the ski slopes in 1952, when the Austrian Gundula Bleichart met Norman Holbrook, she was fascinated to hear that, in the year of her birth, Holbrook had won the VC.
She learnt that on the morning of December 13 1914, Lieutenant Holbrook – who was then 26 – commanded the submarine B-11, when, despite treacherous currents, he dived under five rows of mines to enter the Dardanelles. There, in Sari Siglar Bay, he torpedoed and sank the Ottoman navy’s ironclad Mesudiye, which was guarding the minefield.