The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. C W D Brown

Charles Walter Dryburgh Brown was born on 10th April 1912 in Worcester, the son of Walter Dryburgh Brown (1880-1958) and Anne Dryburgh Brown (nee Micklewright 1880-1933).

In the 1911 census his father appears as a drapery manager, living at 22 Hawthorn Grove, Combe Down, Bath, Somerset.

In the 1939 register he is shown as a textile manager and buyer living at 29 Park Drive, Edgware, Middlesex. His son was recorded at the same address.

CWD Brown had married Peggy Evelyn Walkling in 1937 in Sevenoaks, Kent.

He enlisted in the RAFVR in September 1939 at No. 1 RAF Depot Uxbridge as an Aircrafthand. He later remustered as an Airman u/t Air Gunner.

With his training completed, he joined 236 Squadron, operating Blenheims, in 1940. He was posted to Bomber Command in early 1941 and joined 7 Squadron based at Oakington, Cambridgeshire.

(Back): Sgt WR Burns (NZ), Sgt RI McChesney (NZ), Sgt CWD Brown, Sgt J Lowe, Sgt GG Green, unknown ‘Jock’

(Front): Sgt A Spiers, Sgt JE Goldsmith, Sgt HDB Elsdon

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Brown failed to return from an operation to Hamburg on 29th/30th June. His aircraft, Stirling I MG-Z N3664, took off from Oakington at 23.09 and was shot down by a night-fighter (flown by Oberleutnant Helmut Lent) of 6/NJG1, 36 kilometres NE of Bremen.

Also lost were:

F/O VR Hartwright DFM
P/O HD Brander RCAF
F/Sgt. JR Dale
F/Sgt. DHG Poole DFM
F/Sgt. AG Reading
Sgt. TG Young

Brown is buried in Becklingen War Cemetery, Soltau, Germany. His headstone carries the inscription 'To Charles, So Brave and Free, With All Our Love, Peggy, Dad, Bertha and Elsie'.