William Gordon Browne

Gordon Browne was born to Barbara and William Gordon Browne, in 1924. He lived with his parents at 10 Noble St., Norval along with his sister Joan (WW2) and brother Douglas (Korea) who served their country as their Grandfather and Uncles had years prior.

“No many how many times I tried to enlist in the army by travelling to the Albert St. recruiting office in Toronto, I just wasn’t accepted”, Gord reported during a 1983 interview with the Georgetown Herald. He recounted how he and his school chum Ormie Carter tried their hardest to enlist at age 15, but were denied due to their young age. At age 15, they joined the Lorne Scots and after training at Niagara-on-the -Lake, were shipped to British Columbia.

There they were considered “dead end” kids because they were old enough to be soldiers but too young to fight. Eventually sent overseas to train, Gord became a well known boxer and in 1944 he began active duty in Italy, fighting with the Canadian Seaforth Highlanders through Gothic and Hitler Lines to Rome. Browne and fifty others were captured when their rifles and Bren guns proved no match for German Tiger Tanks.

The POWs were taken to Switzerland and then to Germany to help the Germans deliver Red Cross parcels (as the Geneva Convention required). As a Convoy Commander Gord drove trucks day and night with a German guard at his side, delivering parcels to POW camps all over Germany under life threatening conditions. He was reunited in 1944 with his childhood buddy Ormie Carter, who had also become a Stalag 7 POW, joined the operation.

Gord was mentioned in Military dispatches as he had been among the first recruited for the treacherous job (Halliday, Hugh. “Relief Amid Chaos: The Story of Canadian POWs Driving Red Cross Trucks”. Canadian Military History Vol 1. Pg 65).

Following the war, Gord returned to Norval and was partner in Browne and Louth fencing for 19 years. Interestingly, Gord’s buddy Ormie became his brother-in-law when Gord married Ormie’s sister Joan Browne.

Gord died in 1995 and is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Norval.

Truly a Canadian Hero Information submitted to Homes of Heros Halton Hills in part by Kathy Gastle