Keith McCredden and Ted Bastow have alerted me to the passing of Lou Brown yesterday.
Lou and Keith worked together at Fanning Island in the early 1960s and they had remained good friends ever since.
Keith will provide more detailed info when it comes to hand.
May He Rest In Peace.
Lou retired in January 1985 after 28 years with OTC. He started as a Traffic Assistant in SOR and retired as Senior Marketing Officer with the Marketing Division.
5 Comments
Very sad to hear of Lou’s passing, Keith will be upset they were good friend for years, I knew Lou and found him the complete gentleman, he was at FI after my stint late 50’s. Noel Chapman…
Sorry to hear about Lou Brown’s passing.
Please extend our sincere sympathy to Elgin on Lou’s passing.
Lou and his wife Elgin were good friends of ours and we enjoyed their company while on Fanning and Sydney.
Lou was in the Royal Navy in WW2 escorting convoys to Russia which was no picnic.
While we were on Fanning, we had a Royal Navy Frigate HMS Crane call at the island in the early 1960’s.
The crew came ashore for the day and we all went down to the beach to welcome them and their Chief Petty Officer saw Lou Brown and said ‘I know you we were in Pompei (Portsmouth) training together in 1940. Can you imagine people meeting up after so many years and on such an isolated island. It proves that the world is a small place.
Des Kinnersley
Another sad farewell Peter.
I remember Lou (& his wife, Elgin) well from his early days in OTC Operations. In the 1970’s when Lou joined the Commercial Branch we, together with two others (Jim Banks & Gray MacDonald), led the ‘charge’ from the confines of the OTC office out into the real world of customers.
Not without a certain level of internal scepticism did we first four Commercial Officers make our mark upon among an uninformed clientele. Few had little, to no, knowledge of OTC in those days. Most customers thought all their international telecommunications were handled exclusively by the PMG & Telecom.
We, & others who followed in our footsteps, helped change that image with direct sales campaigns & brochures like the attached “Meet the Pennypinchers” (how young we were in those days!) that helped in no small measure in growing OTC’s image within both industry (especially Intl Telex) & later among the general public as ISD (now IDD) was introduced.
Lou was highly respected by all within his customer portfolio.
Good memories!
Cheers’nBeers, Jim Simpson
The Memorial Service for Lou Brown took place last Thursday 30 August 2015.
Here is the Eulogy delivered by Keith McCredden.
LOU BROWN. Mr. Edward Lewis BROWN.
Lou was born in Leominster (Liemster) Herefordshire, England on the 28th December 1924 . He was a twin to his sister Marian who predeceased him and his brother Albert who is 5 years younger.
He spent the early years of his life as a country yokel before joining the Royal Navy as a boy telegraphist early in the war.
Lou served on various ships from destroyers to battleships in the Mediterranean, along the African coast and the Sicilian and Italian campaigns. Following time with the Mediterranean fleet he was transferred to the Home fleet doing Russian convoys and various patrols in the North
Atlantic.
On D Day 6th June 1944, Lou was aboard the battleship HMS Rodney supporting the landings at Sword Beach, Normandy, with major action at Juno Beach on the following day firing 132 16” shells and 99 rounds of 6” shells. This action continued for many days and HMS Rodney survived many German Fighter/Bomber attacks.
Fortunately for Lou they all missed.
At the end of 1945 Lou came to the Far East on the HMS Bonaventure where he was stationed at Hong Kong and then the Royal Navy shore wireless station at Singapore.
Lou and Elgin met in Sydney where they were married in 1950, then Lou returned to Singapore and Elgin followed shortly after, they remained in Singapore for 2 years, then England, returning to Australia in 1956 where he took his discharge from the Royal Navy after 15-1/2 years service.
Once in Sydney, Lou joined the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (Australia) as a telegraphist in the Sydney Operating Room followed by two and a half years at a remote cable station on Fanning Island in the Line Islands Group as a Cable watchkeeper.
This is where I first met Lou and Elgin when I was posted there in 1961.
On return to Sydney he spent some time in the International Telex Exchange Operations at Paddington before transferring to the Marketing Division in Head Office where he spent the last 10 years of his employment with OTC(A).
After retiring Lou took up wood turning and used his talents as a turner making and repairing children’s toys for the cubby house toy library at Dee Why. He also was a driver for Community Transport in the Dee Why area.
Eye problems eventually prevented Lou from further woodturning although he continued to attend the Northern Beaches Woodturners Club where he assisted with the tea making and keeping the members on their toes.
Lou joined the Dee Why Rotary Club in 1967 was President of the club in 1981/82. He joined Warringah Rotary Club in 2003 and was President there in 2005/06.
Lou took a great interest in the Fourth Avenue in Motion (FAIM) and worked on many projects in the Pacific islands between 1982 and 1992. 4 tours in P.N.G., 2 in Kathmandu and another in the Solomons. Elgin joined Lou on three occasions.
This work was for local village infrastructure projects.
FAIM is now known as World Community Service.
Lou was presented with the following Rotary awards. A Meritorius Service Award from the Rotary Australia World Community Service, Eastern Region.
He was also awarded the Paul Harris fellowship, twice, and a “Pride of Workmanship” award. At all times his Rotary work was fully supported by Elgin who was also awarded a Paul Harris fellowship.
In 1998 Lou was made a Life Member of the Probus Club of Dee Why.
My wife and I share the same wedding anniversary date as Lou and Elgin although we were married 17 years later than them. We have been out together on most of those 47 anniversaries as well as on many other occasions.
Lou and Elgin celebrated their long and happy marriage together when they had their 65th wedding anniversary this year.
Lou was known for his great sense of humour and his community service. He lived a full and happy life and remained fit and well, apart from his failing eyesight towards the end of his 90 years. He will be sadly missed as a loving husband and a loyal friend.
Peter,
I was sad to hear that Lou Brown has passed away, my memories of he and Elgin go way back as he was a friend and work colleague of Gray’s. Hard to believe the years go by so quickly.
I don’t have any contact details for Elgin, so would be grateful if you could pass on my deepest condolences to her and her family, if this is possible.
Many thanks and regards
Bev MacDonald