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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Ron Brown, and has been added to the site with the permission of his wife Pat Brown. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Ron was third in line of eight children. His Dad was a casualty of the First World War and could never keep a job because of his ‘nerves’. So life was hard and even underwear and shoes were a luxury item in their lives.

Les the eldest joined the Red Berets and Ron followed in the Royal Irish two years later. On arrival in France, Ron and 29 others were squashed into a mission hut with tiered bunks.

Imagine the fear of these 18/19 year olds; the walls of the hut were covered in scrawled names and messages. Ron turned to the wall in despair. The message on the wall was from Les, it said ‘give my Mum my love’ with his name and address below. Ron slept no longer alone.

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