Description
Mr. Brown speaks about meeting the love of his life during the war and how, after 59 years, they still hold a strong bond of marriage.
Robert Brown
Mr. Brown was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on March 5, 1924. He was the oldest in his family, having only one younger sister. His father worked as a carpenter with the Canadian National Railway. His mother died when he was in Grade 10. Mr. Brown continued his education before joining the Winnipeg Sea Cadets. In February 1943, he joined the navy and was given the choice to go directly to sea or take a trade. He requested an opportunity to take a diver’s course training. As the Canadian Navy did not offer this course at the time, he received training as a torpedo man instead. During this time, the Canadian government arranged with Britain to take over the British cruiser, HMS Belfast. Mr. Brown was put aboard the cruiser and served as crane operator and torpedo man under British command. After the war, Mr. Brown returned to Canada and held a 35 year career in the field of fire fighting.
Transcript
When we had gone to the lake, the only way you could get there was by train. And so the social activity at the lake, it was very relaxed but everybody went to see the train come in. And that day, a younger sister spotted the two of us getting off the train and she said, “Oh, look at those neat sailors.” And her sister looked and said, “That’s just stupid old Burt Brown.” Well, she finally recognized I was a diamond in the rough and we’ve been married 59 years now. It’s a story I like to tell young people. Our ship’s company, we have a reunion every two years. We’ve been meeting every two years since 1969. For the last 12 years now each time we get together, out of our group of 36 torpedo men there’s been 12 show up. Out of the 12, one became an alcoholic and lost everything. He lost his family and his business, the whole works. The next one, his wife died. He remarried. The other ten have all been married since the war. Sixty, well I guess they’ve all been married over 60 years now. And that’s a good story for young people to hear today because of all the divorces we hear about. They’re not necessary.