I have been looking at another potential mother for Joseph Thomas Brooks born 20 Feb 1915, at 4 Boundary Rd Chatham.
Ethel SALES (Ethel perhaps a second name?) born 1894 in Chatham
Came from a fractured family, who obviously struggled financially.
Someone with access to 1921 census may like to see where she is then.
1911 census at 294 Chatham Hill. Ethel Sales age 16 is with her mother Maria (40), and her step-father William John Smith (38) a worker at Chatham docks, and some half siblings.
Ethel is recorded as a day girl domestic servant.
Was she employed at some point by the Allen family at nearby 4 Boundary Rd?
Stewart and Minnie Allen came from Scotland. He was an accountant, so wealthy enough to employ a domestic servant, and we know the Allans had advertised for a home help / housekeeper in early 1914.
1901 census Chatham Hill. Ethel Sales is recorded as Ethel Smith
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9F3-N9Yhttps://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/5449773:7814Ethels mother -Eliza Maria BLAKE (went by second name Maria) born 1862 Camden / Holborn.
Eliza Maria BLAKE married
Thomas Crouch SALES in Malling, Kent in 1888.
Maria SALES then married William John SMITH in Luton Kent in Aug 1899.
(There are a number of workhouse records for Maria Sales and children from 1892 1897 time period)
Thomas Crouch SALES born Dec 1868 Burham Kent
He was a stoker with the Royal Navy, and joined for 12 years in November 1887, at the age of 12.
He appears to have been discharged early in July 1892 in Vancouver.
He certainly seems to have abandoned his family in England, and by 1894 had started another family in New York with another wife
Marias children:- Mary Ann Elizabeth SALES born 1887 Chatham
Elizabeth Rose SALES 1889 Chatham
Edith May SALES (born in Chatham workhouse Jan 1892)
Ethel SALES /or different surname? born 1894 Chatham [no birth registration found to see what full Christian names were. Baby Ethel and mother in workhouse in Sept 1894. Ethel age 3 in the workhouse in 1897.]
Ernest Robert FISHER born 1898 Chatham (Father Philip Fisher died 1898)
Annie Elizabeth SMITH 1901 Chatham
Olive Catherine SMITH 1903 Chatham
Edith Alice SMITH 1906 Chatham