George Brown |
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Early Life
My father was born in Devonport, England on 12th September 1920. At that time his father, also called George Brown, was serving in the Royal Navy. He had married a local girl, Lesley Dowce, although he himself was a Scotsman from Greenock.
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Dad as a baby with his parents, George and Lesley Brown, taken about 1922. |
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Aged about 10 with his mother. |
Sadly, Lesley Brown died when Dad was still a boy. Unable to look after a young boy while he was away at sea,
George Brown Senior took his son back to Greenock, to be looked after by relatives. Life for my father at that
time was harsh. Any money that his father left for his upkeep was not always used on him, and for a while he was
put in an orphanage.
George Brown Senior eventually remarried; Jeannie, a girl from Greenock, and another son, Joseph, was born.
Dad took the first opportunity he could to leave home.
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June 1938, aged 17 |  |
"Losing Team, July 1938" (Dad is third from left, back row) |
On the 1st of November 1938, aged 18 years, he enlisted in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at
Stirling.
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"Losing weight again." |  |
"How would I do as a Sheik? The bloke at the back is Abu Doro's son-in-law." |
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"Some of the crowd. I'm in my shirt tail here." |
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"I'll be seeing you soon - or will I?" |
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