Story
Edward John Brown, a married man with one young son, suffered from osteo-arthritis but was still conscripted into the Army. He served at home before being sent to France and then to Cologne with the Rhine Army after the war was over. Edward John, whose home was Dunera in Library Road, Upper Parkstone, was a month passed his 27th birthday when he signed his attestation form in Dorchester on 6 June 1916. A coach painter by trade, he remained on the Army Reserve for 299 days before being mobilised on 2 April 1918. His medical examiner put him in the B2 category meaning that he was fit enough to serve on the lines of communication at home or abroad but not fit enough to march, shoot on active service. Tall for the times, he stood at just under 5ft 10ins, had a 39ins chest and weighed over 12 stone. He had black hair, a dark complexion and brown eyes. He joined the Royal Berkshires (regimental number 43061) and, in August 1918, spent 13 days in King George V hospital, which was in Stamford Street, London. His ward was in Bed Number 34 in F Hut ward. Brown was suffering from what was thought to be a sprained or fractured ankle. An X-ray showed no fracture but signs of osteo-arthritis. He was treated by being given radiant heat and massage which led to 'much improvement.' The medical examiner reported that he was: 'Perfectly fit for his position as a motor driver, his pre-war occupation. Any other re-occupation involving [?] foot would be prejudicial to his cure.' Nine days before the Armistice of 11 November 1918, Private Brown was transferred to the Mechanical Transport section of the Royal Army Service Corps after another medical examination. After initially refusing a vaccination, the same day he was given the T.A.B anti-typhoid vaccine and a booster a week later and judged fit for service. (His record is also stamped 'Dentally Fit'.) Private Brown (regimental number now 405032), whose civvy-street occupation was now listed as 'General Labourer (Coach Builders), passed a Learner test at Grove Park depot in Lewisham to drive Hallford Trucks. His trade was later reclassified as 'Painter'. He was then posted abroad, embarking from Dover to Calais on 18 December 1918 on the troop carrier SS Viper. (She was a Scottish-built steam ship that had worked the Ardrossan to Belfast route before the war.) Private Brown's Army Service Record records that he spent 351 days in 'France' but this includes his time with the Rhine Army having been posted to the RASC's MT depot in Cologne on 13 June 1919. He returned to Britain on 4 December 1919 and was demobbed after 28 days with a Certificate of Trade Proficiency that state he had proved himself a 'superior painter.' Edward John Brown had been born in Poole on 7 May 1889, the son of George Francis and Christiana (or Christiania) Brown. George was a carter who hailed from Milborne St Andrew in Dorset. Christiana was born in Hazelbury in the same county. Both had been born around 1868. Their first son, Edward John was baptised in Branksome on 12 June of 1889 at St Aldhelm's. The family lived in Langley Road and, in the 1891 Census, Edward John was down as simply 'John'. He was shown to have been born in Upper Parkstone. By 1901, the Brown family was living at 1 Hunts Lane, Branksome. George, a coal carter, and Christiania [sic] were listed along with five children. The oldest was 'John', aged 11 (evidently Edward John, though his birthplace was given as Bere Regis, not Branksome.) Laura, at 14, was the oldest child. The other children were Walter, six, May, four, and Emily, one. A 20-year-old lodger also lived with them. By 1911, the family were still living at 1 Hunts Lane in 'Branksome, Bournemouth' (according to the Census.) George, Edward John's father, was a carman working for a coal merchant, and they had six surviving children. Sadly, two other children had died. Laura, who had been born in Bere Regis, was a single 24-year-old shop assistant working at a china and glass warehouse. The other children living with them had all been born in Branksome. John, 21, (Edward John) was a coach painter whose birthplace was now listed as Branksome; Walter, 16, a butcher's assistant, Emily, 11 and Albert, eight, were still at school and there was a six-month-old baby, Phyllis. On 6 January 1915 he married Maud Lavinia Bodman [?] at Twerton-on-Avon, near Bath. The couple's first son, Jack Albert George Brown, was born 14 months later, in Branksome, on 8 March 1916, a month before Edward was conscripted. They would later have more children. Sadly, Maud died in Poole in 1937 at the age of 47. In 1939, the year the Second World War began, widower Edward John Brown was still living in Library Road, at number 67. He was a now a coach painter and cellulose sprayer and a foreman. Living at the same address was his son, Jack, who was also a coach painter and cellulose sprayer. With them also were three girls, presumably George and Maud's daughters. They were Audrey M.E. Brown, who was born on 26 September 1920 and was listed as doing unpaid domestic duties; Pamela A. Brown, born on 27 May 1922; and Hazel Lavina [sic] Brown, born on 16 February 1928. The latter two were still at school. (Additions to the register show that Audrey would marry in 1947 and Hazel eight years later.) In 1944, Edward J Brown was still listed in the local Kelly's Directory as occupying Dunera, at 67 Library Road. By 1947, however, the occupier was Miss A Brown (and three years after that, Jack Brown.)
Subdivision
- Royal Army Service Corps