Dennis Gurney Broad was born at Aylesbury, England during 1883. At the outbreak of the First World War, he was living in Australia and gave his occupation as a commercial traveller. With his only previous military service being in the London Rifle Brigade, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 11 August 1914. Broad departed Sydney aboard HMAT Berrima on 19 August 1914 as part of the Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (Tropical Unit).

In December 1914, wishing to return home, Broad requested to be discharged from the AIF. He returned to England and joined the Royal Naval Air Service and was given the rank of flight sub-lieutenant and assigned to HMS Killingholme. Broad received his Aviators certificate on 30 July 1915 from Royal Naval Air Station at Eastbourne, England while flying a Maurice Farman Biplane. Broad was killed in action during an engagement with a submarine in the North Sea on 27 April 1916. Dennis Broad is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial, England.