Home | Veterans | Arthur Brown
Arthur-Brown

A veteran interview with

Arthur Brown

Sergeant Arthur Brown originally joined the Royal Artillery in 1943. He soon found that it wasn’t really exciting enough…

Play video
Watch the interview

About Arthur Brown

Arthur Brown joined the army in 1943 as a radio operator in the Tank Regiment but soon became fed up with the training and volunteered for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). He joined Operation Jedburgh, which involved three-man teams—an allied commanding officer, a radio operator, and a local officer—being parachuted behind enemy lines around D-Day to work with resistance fighters in France and the Low Countries. There were around 100 ‘Jedburgh’ teams deployed in the European theatre mainly between June and September 1944. On the 9th of June, Brown, now a Sergeant, his team leader, the highly decorated Scottish officer, Major Tommy MacPherson and a French officer, Michel ‘Bourbon’ were dropped into central France to assist the Maquis. The ‘Jedburgh’s were dressed in military uniform to avoid being executed as spies, if captured. Brown’s role was to send coded radio messages back to the UK updating their operations but he became ill and had to be hidden by the Maquis, being moved around to avoid detection. After France was liberated, he and MacPherson continued similar operations in Italy until the German surrender. When faced with a possible posting to Germany, Brown volunteered to go to Burma and served there with other former ‘Jedburghs’ until the war’s end. 

Credits

Interviewed by:
Martyn Cox
Reviewed by:
Gary Washbrook

Copyright:
All video content, web site design, graphics, images (including submitted content), text, the selection and arrangement thereof, underlying source code, software and all other material on this Web site are the copyright of Legasee Educational Trust, and its affiliates, or their content and technology providers. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Any use of materials on this Web site – including reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution, or republication – without the prior written permission of Legasee Educational Trust is strictly prohibited.

Home | Veterans | Arthur Brown

A veteran interview with

Arthur Brown

Arthur-Brown

Sergeant Arthur Brown originally joined the Royal Artillery in 1943. He soon found that it wasn’t really exciting enough…

Related topics & talking points

Keep on watching

More veteran stories...

Share this interview on:

https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/arthur-brown/

Cite this interview:

MLA Style:
Brown, Arthur. A Veteran Interview with Arthur Brown. Interview by Martyn Cox. Legasee, n.d. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/arthur-brown/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2025.
APA Style:
Brown, A. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Arthur Brown [Interview by Martyn Cox]. Legasee. Retrieved April 27, 2025, from https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/arthur-brown/
Chicago Style:
Brown, Arthur. n.d.. A Veteran Interview with Arthur Brown. Interview by Martyn Cox. Legasee. Accessed April 27, 2025. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/arthur-brown/
Harvard Style:
Brown, A. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Arthur Brown. [Interviewed by Martyn Cox]. Legasee. Available at https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/arthur-brown/ (Accessed: 27 April 2025)
Vancouver Style:
Brown, A. A Veteran Interview with Arthur Brown [Internet]. Interview by M. Cox. Legasee; n.d. [cited 2025 Apr 27]. Available from: https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/arthur-brown/
An interview with

Katherine McMullin

Katherine describes her time as a driver for the WRAC.

From a young age Katherine knew she wanted to travel and when offered the opportunity to join the Royal Corps of Transport, she signed with the army. At nineteen she left for Guildford and speaks fondly of her time at the training base, in particular her passing out parade which she describes as an incredibly surreal experience. Although her trade training was postponed due to the Mill Hill Bombing in 1988, she soon became part of the team at Bovington Training Centre that drove new officers fresh from Sandhurst who were on their Tactical Exercise Without Troops (TEWT) training. Later she was moved to Rheindahlen 68 Squadron where she met different soldiers from the UN and NATO and remembers this as the best tour she served whilst in the army. During this tour she witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall and contributed to the peacekeeping duties in Czechoslovakia. In 1991 Katherine recalls troops being sent to Iraq and the importance of her work behind the front lines in the rear party. She provides great detail of one particular mission which developed from an initial twenty-four hour drive to an almost three week task of shipping ammunition to the Gulf. From here she was posted to Northern Ireland where she worked as both a driver and searcher for IRA bombs. Following the disbandment of the WRAC Katherine returned to work in Germany with the onset of the Bosnian war, and worked as a driver until she left in 1995. Katherine's interview offers an insightful overview of different experiences of WRAC women and gives an authentic account of the many adversities women faced in the army.
Photo Gallery icon 16 Photos
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Colin Parker

A Coldstream Guard trained to feel invincible has a near death experience in the Middle East and suffers devastating PTSD.

Collin Parker details his experience with PTSD as well as his tragic fall from invincible Coldstream Guard to being left for dead in the Middle East. Slaving away day after day at his foundry job pushed Collin to actualise his childhood infatuation with the Armed Forces and join the Coldstream Guards. This particular regiment had a violent and prideful reputation due to moulding their recruits to feel like nothing could hurt them, something Collin experienced first hand.  Collin initially found it exciting to be on the battlefield until he was surrounded by Middle Eastern tribals and gravely injured by their mortar fire, the two teenagers soldiers under his command at the time not making it. Laying in the crater thinking about his family one last time Collin was fully convinced he had died but miraculously he survived.  After the attack Collin had to relearn how to walk and talk and was then medically discharged and forced to deal with his new found PTSD alone. Having to accept that the army viewed him as expendable was extremely difficult for Collin; he felt so small and powerless after being discharged, he had lost everything and they did not care. Due to the way the Coldstream Guard trained him Collin never believed he would suffer from PTSD but now he was stuck constantly relieving the stress and fear from that day over and over. 
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Neville Williams

After becoming a Civil Engineer, Neville became a Lance Corporal as a signaller and offers a powerful account of his time in Korea

Having been born and brought up in Chester, Neville enlisted in 1951, at aged 21, in the Welch Fusiliers following completion of a civil engineering apprenticeship. Early on in his training, Neville was promoted to Lance Corporal and eventually became a signaller. He describes how early on, he sensed they were being prepared for battle although when he was told that they were going to Korea, like many others, he didn’t know anything about the country. Following arrival in Korea, he and his compatriots underwent a 48-hour train journey, during which Neville describes learning about the Korean People. He tells of a great admiration for them, their skills and their hard work. Initially stationed in Pioneer Hill on the 38th Parallel, his account describes in detail the hugely challenging conditions under which they lived and fought, much of it like WWI. His narrative offers powerful insights into the trials associated with fighting, the personal impact and the ways in which soldiers were supported. He also highlights the factors that enable survival in these conditions, including the value of the close bond forged between soldiers. Finally, he offers his reflections on the necessity of war.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker