8. The final child of Jack Brown and Charlotte Willett-Leslie David.

Above: My great-Uncle Les Brown.

Leslie David Brown was born on November 2, 1921-22, at Yarrawonga, the final
child born to Jack Brown and Charlotte Willett.
Known as ‘Les’, he did all of his schooling in Yarrawonga. He was only sixteen when WW2 started in September of 1939, and was desperate to join the Army and fight overseas. He tried to lie about his age and join before the age of eighteen, but
wasn’t accepted for enlistment until June 6, 1940.When WW2 erupted, the minimum age for enlistment was 20, not dropping to 18 until mid-1942.
By viewing Les Brown’s enlistment papers(online at the National Archives of Australia site),we can see that he had to move his year of birth back to 1918 so he would be accepted. Leslie David Brown enlisted at Caulfield on June 6, 1940. At the time he had been living with his sister Lil Burke at Hovell Street, Yarrawonga.
Les served for a total of 2,025 days, from his enlistment on 6/6/1940 until his
discharge on 21/12/1945. His service in Australia totalled 61 days, while his active service overseas was 1,659 days.
Les’s war record revealed some very interesting information about his life as a
soldier. He was described as being 5 ft 11 inches tall, hazel eyes on one page, blue
on another, fair hair, and his only distinctive mark was a scar on his back, midline,
which was noted as being an axe wound! I’d love to know the story behind that wound, it being nigh well impossible to axe yourself in the middle of the back!
After Les was formally enlisted, he travelled to Puckapunyal for training camp. He got himself into strife on two occasions, both for being absent without leave(AWOL), and forfeited one day’s pay on the first occasion (July 7 1940 2358 hours to 2140 hours 8/7/1940) and two day’s pay on the second ( December 27 2359 hours to December 29 1940, 0640 hours).
Les Brown sailed out from Sydney for Indonesia with his unit on April 7,
1941.He had four days in hospital with otitis media (ear infection), then rejoined
the 2/2 PNR Btn on May 25, 1941.
On June 20, Les was unofficially reported as a Prisoner of War (P.O.W), but he
was released by his captors the following month and rejoined his unit on July 26,
1941.
Les seems to have had eight trouble-free months, until in March of 1942 his unit
embarked on the ‘S.S Orcades’, headed for Batavia.
On April 28, 1942, Les was reported missing in action again in Java, and this time
his luck had run out. He remained a POW until October 1945-three and a half
horrific years.
Service Number :VX23478
Rank : Private
Unit : 2/2 Pioneer Battalion
Casualty : Prisoner of War
Location of camp: Moulmein, Burma
Source: Prisoner of War capture cards or letter
Theatre of war: Java
Those Australians unfortunate enough to be incarcerated at Moulmein were put to work on the Burma Railway, also known also as the Death Railway, the Thailand-Burma Railway and similar names, a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Bangkok, Thailand and
Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), built by the Empire of Japan during World War II, to
support its forces in the Burma campaign.
At the time of Leslie’s reported missing in action status, his sister Ivy Oakley was pregnant with her first child. The baby was born on May 4, 1942, and with Les still missing, presumed dead, Ivy paid tribute to her much-loved brother by naming the child after him. The trouble with this loving gesture was the sex of the baby...it was a girl, so my mother was registered ‘Lesley Margaret Oakley’, but known throughout her entire life as ‘Marg’.
Les was lucky in that he survived the atrocious conditions in the Japanese Prisoner of War camps, although when he came back to Australia after the end of the War he was like so many of the other P.O.Ws- a frail and ill ‘walking skeleton’. When he recovered enough to work, he joined his sleeper cutter brothers at Warburton, where he drove logging trucks as he slowly regained his strength.
While living at Warburton, Les Brown married Betty Peacock. He was an excellent
footballer and both played for the local team and captained them.
Les and Betty’s first child was a daughter, Wendy Margaret Brown. She was born in
August or September 1951, at Yarra Junction. Tragically, her parents only had eleven short months with their baby daughter. On August 30, 1951, in her Main Street, Warburton home, Wendy Brown passed away from complications arising from meningitis and influenza.
Her death certificate states her parents were Leslie David Brown, a motor driver, and Betty Madeline Brown formerly Peacock.
Wendy Margaret Brown was buried in the Warburton Cemetery on September 1, 1951.
Les and Betty went on to have a family of six children- Wendy; Allan; Annette; Linda;
Norman and Noel.
After his logging job had finished, Les and his family moved to Albury NSW, where he
became an interstate truck driver for the company H.R Hanel. He worked there for many
years, then moved to Sydney to manage a truck depot for Hanels.
Leslie David Brown died on September 29, 1981, aged 60 years (or 59- the lying about his age during WW2 has resulted in me not knowing the exact year of his birth!)