Gunner Charles Henry Brown

Charles Henry BROWN was born in Dannevirke in 1902. He was the 1st of 7 children of Charles Henry BROWN of Lincolnshire England and Marion Sarah CRAWLEY of Awatoto, Napier, Hawkes Bay. Charles was an Electric Linesman. He married Myra Rose McKINNON in 1923 in Palmerston North. They had 3 (known) children. In 1941 Charles went to WWII. He was on board the SS CHAKDINA on the night of 5th December 1941. Being wounded, with a number of others, they were being transported by sea from Tobruk back to their base and just as the moon was rising, at about 9pm they were attacked by a torpedo-carrying aircraft. Approaching at a height of barely 50 feet, the plane released a torpedo which exploded in one of the aft holds. Immediately the ship began to sink by the stern and in three and a half minutes it had disappeared. Myra remarried in 1946 to Ralph HUNT in Dannevirke. His parents were buried in Mangatera cemetery Dannevirke. Source: http://www.familytreecircles.com/charles-henry-brown-of-dannevirke-...

Cenotaph Record: http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C...