Sam Brown

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Biography

Birth

Sam Wayland Brown was born on the 7th March 1916 in Newport Monmouthshire. ^[1] He was the youngest son of Frank Brown & Ellen Hawes. ^[2]

Sam (Little Sam) was educated at St Julians High School in Newport. He started work for Frank James Ltd, he was still working there in late 1939 as a grocers clerk.

Around 1920 his mother Ellen left the family home to start a new life, she started a new family and lived in the Cardiff area for many years.

By 1928, dads eldest brother had also left the family home and emigrated to Australia, he landed in Sydney and started a new life, Dad would never see either his mother or elder brother again.

In 1939 the family is living at 60, Brynglas Road in the Malpas area of Newport with his father and elder brother, his mother Ellen had left the family home some years earlier and the boys were brought up by his aunt and uncle, Dorothy and Sam (Big Sam).

^[3] Shortly after the 1939 census Dad would have gone into the Royal Artillery. Promoted to the rank of captain he saw action at the Battle of Kohima, and the fighting for the Imphal Road, He was later field promoted to the rank of major and was associated with Major General Orde Charles Wingate, (Wingates Phantom Army) until Wingates death in a plane crash late in the Burma Campaign 1944.

Marriage

Dad returned to Newport to marry mum in early December 1945. ^[4] Immediately after the wedding the family understands that dad was posted to Germany as part of the British repatriation force, he was there for a period of 6 months. Dad never spoke of this, but after his death in 1989 mum told the family that she had left the nursing service thinking that Sam had finished his involvement in the Royal Artillery, she didn't know that he had to go abroad again after serving 6 years away. It's now a lot easier to understand why dad refused his war medals.

Today in the cemetery at Kohima, situated among the 1,378 grave markers, remembering those who fell in this battle, is a famous memorial, it carries the inscription,

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

For those who survived, they gave more than just that day, Dad lived with the memories of Burma for the rest of his natural life. His uniform hung in his wardrobe for well over 20 years after the war finished, he also kept a clip of ammunition from his revolver along with two photograph albums that captured scenes of the Japanese conflict. I spoke to Dad in 1988, while I was in the UK, this was about 10 months before he died and he told me then that he had never forgotten the orders that he had to give during the Burma conflict.

In 2010 I wrote a tribute to my dad and called it "The Road to Mandalay" mainly to remind myself that maybe, as his eldest son I could have done more to understand what he, and all those who have served, not only in WW11 but in all conflicts around the world had to deal with.

When his war was finally over he returned to work at Frank James in Newport.

Laburnum Garden

Laburnum Garden 2

Death

Dad passed away in August 1989, ^[5] and was cremated at Thornhill Crematorium and his ashes are scattered in the Laburnum Garden of Remembrance at Thornhill Cemetery. (Work in Progress)

Sources

1. ↑ Firsthand knowledge of my Dad, Sam Brown entered at Registration.
2. ↑ Birth: Sam Wayland Brown GRO reference 1916 J Quarter in Newport Mon Volume 11A Page 475 https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=mCtMlAIUpXbCY4Cq%2FdYI0w&scan=1
3. ↑ Source: 1939 Register of England & Wales Record: Sam W Brown in household of Sam Brown Year: 1939; Country: Wales; County: Monmouthshire; Parish: Newport Citation: Sam W Brown Birth: Mar 7 1916 Residence: Sep 29 1939 - 60, Brynglas Road, Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales
4. ↑ Marriage: Sam Wayland Brown to Joyce Williams. GRO reference 1945 D Quarter in Newport Mon. Volume 11A Page 526 https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=DpVvqVw4qoVQE6PU7%2FIAkw&scan=1
5. ↑ Death: Sam Wayland Brown GRO reference 1989 S Quarter in South Glamorgan Volume 28 Page 1378