Walter Leslie Brown (Chaplain)

Honorary Captain (The Reverend) Walter Leslie Brown (13 August 1910 – 6 June 1944), served in the Canadian Chaplain Service and was attached to the Sherbrooke Fusiliers Regiment, 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade during Operation Overlord. He was murdered by Waffen-SS soldiers having surrendered and dressed as an army chaplain at the time of capture.

Walter Leslie Brown
Born	(1910-08-13)August 13, 1910 Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
Died	June 6, 1944(1944-06-06) (aged 33) Near Caen, Normandy, France
Cause of death	Bayonet wound
Occupation	Anglican Minister and later Chaplain in the Canadian Army
Parent(s)	George C Brown (father) Florence M Peters (mother)

History

Walter Brown was born in Peterborough, Ontario on 13 August 1910,[1] to English-born parents George Carmichael Brown and Florence May Brown (née Peters), although the family later settled in Orillia, Ontario.[2] He had two brothers.[3]

Reverend Brown (an alumnus of Huron University College) was already an ordained and practising minister,[4] before he volunteered for service in the Canadian Army as part of the Canadian Chaplain Service[5] on 1 April 1941 in Toronto, Ontario. He was eventually attached to an armoured regiment (the 27th Armoured Regiment (The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment)) slated to land early on D-Day[6] and he was therefore one of the first Canadian Military Chaplains to land in Normandy on Juno Beach on 6 June 1944.[7] Walter Brown was murdered (by bayonetting),[8] after surrendering to members of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend on 6 June.[9][10] He was the only allied military chaplain to suffer this fate, although several were killed and wounded in action in World War II.[11][12] The Hitlerjugend Waffen SS were notoriously brutal[13] and murdered several Canadian Prisoners of War in the early stages of the Normandy Campaign (see Ardenne Abbey massacre).[14]

His body was eventually recovered on 11 July 1944 and he was buried along with other Canadian servicemen in the Bény-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery in Normandy, France.[15] Walter Brown was awarded the following medals posthumously: the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal, the War Medal, the Defence Medal and the France and Germany Star. The medals were passed to his parents.[16]

See also

• Royal Canadian Army Chaplain Corps
• Military chaplain
• Kurt Meyer
• First Canadian Army

References

1. Ontario, Canada Births, 1858-1913
2. Canada, Veterans Affairs (February 20, 2019). "Walter Leslie Brown - The Canadian Virtual War Memorial - Veterans Affairs Canada". www.veterans.gc.ca. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
3. 1921 Census of Canada, Orillia, Simcoe East, Ontario
4. "Fallen Heroes of Normandy Detail". www.fallenheroesofnormandy.org. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
5. "History of Military Chaplaincy". unitedmilitarychaplains.ca. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
6. "Defence of Carpiquet, 7 June 1944 - TracesOfWar.com". www.tracesofwar.com. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
7. "Walter Leslie Brown". Juno Beach Centre. April 29, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
8. "Normandy Soldiers - Brown, (Rev.) Walter Leslie". ssns.frontiersd.mb.ca. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
9. Peterson, Michael (June 6, 2014). "Mad Padre: Remembering Two Canadian Chaplains Who Fell On D-Day". Mad Padre. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
10. Brown, Walter Leslie. "Findagrave Record". Retrieved March 13, 2019.
11. "Our History". The Anglican Church of Canada. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
12. "Canadian Chaplains". They Gave Their Today. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
13. Sullivan, Michael E (2012). "Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism: The 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy". Canadian Military History. 10 (3): 43. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
14. Margolian, Howard (2000). "Conduct Unbecoming: The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy". University of Toronto Press. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
15. Brown, Walter Leslie. "Casualty". www.cwgc.org. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
16. "Walter Leslie Brown". Juno Beach Centre. April 29, 2014. Retrieved March 13, 2019.