An Ancestor a week for 20 weeks– number 17- Charles Samuel Middlebrook

Charles Samuel ( Known as Sam) Middlebrook was the 6th child and second son of John and Mary Ann Middlebrook..
Like is father, and his older brother John Thompson Middlebrook, he took up the trade of butcher, helping in the family business in Te Awamutu.
At 28 years old he married Catherine Isabella Murtagh .
While living in Te Awamutu Sam and Catherine had 4 children:  Eldest child was John Walter Middlebrook , born in 1913. 3  years later Emma Jane was born in 1916 , followed by Olive Mary in 1917 and finally in 1918 their final child Zoe Mabel completed their family.  Sam  was listed in the WW1 reserves but unlike  his younger brothers was never called up to fight. He was classified “D” due to the fact that he had ( at the time) 3 children. This may have had a bearing toward the fact that he was never called up to fight .
Sam lived and worked for the family business in Te Awamutu  until the early 1930s when he moved his family to Raglan and , following the family tradition, ran his own butchers shop, assisted by his son John Walter.

Sam and Katie retired to South Auckland before 1950, and Sam died aged 75 in 1960, and Katie died in 1963.