Jock of Gibraltar

By Steve Smith

The subjects I choose to write about in my blog, are chosen for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it is a request for information from a family member that sparks my interest. This blog is one of those times.

I was already aware of the subject before I was contacted by his grandson; indeed, he is mentioned in at least one of my previous blogs. However, when I started to research him, I realised a knew little about him, especially his life outside of Toc H. But his grandson was seeking information on behalf of his own mother, who is the daughter of our subject. That is why this blog does include some very personal family information. It is published with the full permission and support of his daughter, who wanted to find out more about the man she barely knew.  It is an interesting tale that reveals the complexities behind a man who was quite legendary in Toc H. And that man is Jock Brown.

William Boyd Brown – known always in Toc H as Jock – was born illegitimately at Pathway, Bannockburn on the 5^th November 1893. His birth record even helpfully gives us the time of birth, which was 7.15pm. Although his parents – Orlando Brown and Annie McLeod – were not married, their names both appeared with the registration, and the child was given the surname Brown.

It is unclear whether or not they actually married for in September 1895, when Orlando, an Iron Foundry Worker, was fined for a breach of the peace, Annie was described as his wife but was listed as Annie McLeod, or Brown. Incidentally, she was also admonished by the court. Unfortunately, this was not Orlando’s only offence and he seemed to be frequently in trouble for disturbing the peace or trespassing (probably poaching).

At the time of the 1901 census Orlando was living with his parents, and William was with him. The extended family, who were living in Broad Street, Denny, also included four other young children, each bearing a different surname though described as grandchildren to Orlando’s father William, the head of the household. Jock’s mother, Annie, appears to be an inmate of the Bellsdyke Hospital (Stirling District Lunatic Asylum) in Larbert. She would die here in 1903. Orlando died in July 1921 at Denny Cottage Hospital, having married another woman. What is clear is that Jock grew up in very difficult conditions.

Information about his early life is quite difficult to come by. We learn from his later letters to his daughter (more of which presently) that in 1911, at the age of 18, he met the woman whom he loved. I believe this was Bessie Violet, though her maiden name is not known to me. Indeed, I can find little about her, and I found no evidence of a marriage nor any sign of them as a couple on the 1921 census.

According to one source, he served with the Gordon Highlanders (another states the Highland Light Infantry) during the Great War and visited the original Talbot House in Poperinge during that time. This makes him, what is known as, a Foundation Member of Toc H. So he would have known about the Movement and possibly received a ‘Whizz-Bang’ from Tubby (see my Postcards blog for an explanation). Thus, it’s no surprise that he became a member of Toc H (one source says he joined in 1924 though I don’t have proof to back this up). What I do know is that by the mid-1930s, he had become an active member of a group in Greater Manchester (the source says Sale but this is unlikely as Sale group doesn’t get underway until about 1938). In the 1934 Electoral Register, he and Bessie are living in Iron Works Cottage, Trafford Park which is a stone’s throw across the river from Salford. I think that it was Salford branch that Jock joined in the mid-1930s. As you can see, information about this early life is confusing.

The couple are difficult to track in more detail by my usual methods. This is not unsurprising as they were both common names. Also, one of the ways a researcher can track down people is through key life-events, for instance, the birth of a child. We know, again from Jock’s later letters, that he and Bessie agreed never to have a baby. Why, we just don’t know for Jock clearly loved children, as we shall see.

^{Squire’s Gate Children’s Camp where Jock was Warden in the 1930s}

And so the next time we ‘find’ Jock and Bessie, it is through the 1939 register, taken at the outbreak of World War II. Here they are living, on site, at the Squire’s Gate Children’s Camp (not to be confused with the Squire’s Gate holiday camp across the road) in Lytham St Annes near Blackpool. The camp was established by the Wood Street Mission in the 1897 (though the building Jock and Bessie knew, opened in 1922) to provide holidays for underprivileged children. Toc H appeared to have some involvement which may have led to Jock being appointed Camp Master. He was probably appointed soon after April 1935, when the previous Camp Master, Henry Bent, had to retire due to ill-health. Jock was also Childrens’ Gym Instructor, and Games Master. Bessie was Matron. According the one person on an Internet forum, who visited the camp as a child, they also had a dog called Betsy.

^{Squire’s Gate Children’s Camp from the air (Photo Britain From Above)}

Interestingly, in 1939 the couple had a third person living with them. Betty Constance Boyd Brown was 20 years old and described as a Children’s Nurse. If Jock’s assertion that he and Bessie didn’t have children is to be believed, then perhaps she was a niece or another relative?

It is with the outbreak of World War II that Jock’s life changed direction as he turns his hand to what would become Toc H’s main war work – running Service Clubs. (see this blog).

With Allied troops spreading across the globe, Toc H starts to run clubs for soldiers both in the UK and wherever they are stationed abroad. This is a real ‘back to its roots’ moment for Toc H. It is also the end of his relationship with Bessie. As Jock later writes, “[we] were separated by war since 1940”. In the same letter he also says “war meant I had to go on living and expressing my soul in service to the young people of the world who share my hearth”. It was clear where Jock’s soul lay.

The first record I have of him running a Toc H club in in San Severo, Italy around 1943. The following year he was further north in Italy running clubs in two villages – Mogliano and Urbisaglia – with Winfred Taylor. After the war had ended, in late 1945, Jock was running a club in Sezana, then under the control of the British and Americans. Formerly part of Italy, it shortly became Yugoslavian and now is Slovenian. Military orders stated that the club was only to be open to Allied soldiers, as things between them and the Yugoslav soldiers were tense. Jock circumvented these orders by setting up chairs and tables in the garden of the club and relayed classical concerts to his friends, the predominantly Slav townspeople of Sezana.

As the troops left the battlefields across the world, so did Toc H. Instead, they started to travel with the BAOR (British Army Of the Rhine) running clubs in Germany. Jock was transferred near to the ruined city of Hanover where he opened a club – Exeter House – in Hildesheim. He was assisted by Phyliss Jones. The building was an old hotel on Einumer Strasse, and it was here Jock built a playground for younger children. He also ran a Scouts Rover troop for older German boys, and they worked with children at a nearby TB hospital. Phyllis Jones was later replaced by Mrs Webb, wife of Paul Webb, the Toc H BAOR Commissioner in Germany.

^{Jock with ‘his children’ at the playground in Hildesheim}

Any visitor to the Toc H Services Club, Hildesheim, Hanover, cannot fail to notice numbers of German children playing in the Club garden at all hours of the day. They start arriving as early as 7.30 a.m., and continue to come and go throughout the day for, with 85 per cent. of the city destroyed, school lessons have to be taken in shifts and play-time must be adjusted to correspond.

It was whilst running this club that Jock first encountered Ilse Smolenski, a German woman whose father ran the Huckup restaurant in Hildesheim (a Huckup being a local troll like creature). Jock met Ilse there and she would become his Assistant Warden and Administrator. They also fell in love and Ilse would become Jock’s partner, though they could not marry since Jock was still married to Bessie.

^{Jock with Ilse in the Huckup restaurant (Photo Elizabeth Stollowsky)}

In 1950, Jock was recalled from Germany by Toc H and on 29^th December 1950, he set sail for Gibraltar where he was tasked with setting up a Leave Camp at Europa Point on Little Bay. The camp was in some pre-existing huts and Jock planned for it to be open by Easter 1951. He would later open a sister camp, this time in tents, across the Strait of Gibraltar in Tangier. Initially Ilse went with Jock and was his Assistant Manager, responsible for the Spanish Staff, buying goods and acted as a Spanish interpreter.

^{Jock and Ilse in Germany 1952 (Photo Elizabeth Stollowsky)}

In 1953 Ilse fell pregnant. She wanted to marry Jock but he was unable (or perhaps unwilling) to do so. He may still have been married to Bessie at this time. Ilse was unhappy with this situation so in December 1953, she returned to Germany and on the 4^th January 1954, in Frankfurt, gave birth to Elizabeth (aka Lili). Jock flew out to Germany to see her and was happy to be registered as her father. However, his work kept him in Gibraltar and soon after, Ilse met and married another man and Jock was prevented from seeing his daughter. He did however write to Elizabeth when she was older, and it is these letters that I quoted from earlier. It was Elizabeth and her son Florian who contacted me seeking more information about Jock and started my research rolling.

Meanwhile, back on the rock, as well as the hostel, Jock also helped run the local Toc H branch. It included Rover Scouts who visited the Colonial and Military Hospital three times a week as well as the psychiatric Hospital. They took a record player and records with them to entertain the patients. They also worked with local blind people.

In March 1954, Jock was caught up in an incident in the Mediterranean when the troopship, the Empress Windrush, caught fire and sank. Jock took survivors in to the Toc H camp until they were shipped home.

Sadly, in March 1955, Toc H decided to close the Leave Camp. At this point, Jock chose to take matters into his own hands. Without the financial support of Toc H (though with permission), he persuaded the military to loan him quarters built into the South Bastion, part of the Charles V fortress wall that surrounded part of the town. This included gun batteries and powder rooms. Jock would turn them into a new Toc H club. He was helped in this endeavour by a young Spanish girl called Isabella, who remained with him for many years. Jock thought of her as another daughter. Isabella later married Harry Kirby, a carpenter, whose skills were put to use converting the Toc H club. A chapel was built into one of the old powder rooms. Jock called it a Peace Camp, and it was also his home, and would remain so for the rest of his life.

^{Jock in the Gibraltar chapel}

Jock was a familiar figure around the town. Nearly always in his kilt, the diminutive Scotsman (he was little more than five feet tall) was often seen riding his bike around. His love of people, particularly children, was well known and he was popular for his work with them. He was a Freemason and a member of the Kirk. He was also passionate about Toc H despite the fact he had been virtually abandoned by them.

Toc H lost part of the club when, in 1956, a new Primary school building was built atop the bastion. A few years later, two Old People’s Homes (Church of England and Jewish faith), were also built upon the northwest side of the sea-facing wall of the South Bastion and inaugurated on 10th February 1964. The remaining part of the club was increasingly being used as a hostel for young adventurers rather than a club for military men.

However, Jock did a lot more than offer a bed for itinerant back-packers. Before the Government Probation and Child Care services became available, Jock often took in troubled youngsters who required separation from the family environment. Also, travellers who had become stranded (quite probably youngsters on the ‘hippy trail’) were put up free of charge until they could be repatriated.

One newspaper report expounded on his talents and said that he was ‘also an electrician, a motor mechanic, a cobbler, and an artist’.

Jock’s only income at this time was small fees from the boys who camped with him. And, as he admitted in one of the letters to Elizabeth, after the Spanish border closed in June 1969, this income somewhat dried up. By the mid-seventies, Jock was reduced to selling his possessions to survive.

In 1969 Jock was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for Services to the Community of Gibraltar. He made occasional visits to London to see Tubby or visit Toc H HQ. My friend recalls seeing him on Tower Hill once. And many Toc H folk visited him on the Rock, and enjoyed his hospitality.

In February 1982 when he was almost 90, Jock was involved in a car accident and broke his leg. His health was already declining and after that he got more fragile. He was regularly visited by two local policemen and was well looked after by his housekeeper. However, his sight was deteriorating, as was his memory. Jock died in 1986 at the age of 94. Harry and Isabella took over the running of the hostel.

^{Jock at the hostel in his later years}

What was Jock like? He was also, by all accounts, a staunch Christian. Well liked, he was determined to look after his flock, be that German children in a ruined city, or British sailors on the Rock of Gibraltar. I cannot begin to guess at why he would leave behind a woman and child in Germany. Certainly, he would have been ordered to Gibraltar by Toc H (they sent staff where they were needed in a very military fashion) but why he didn’t attempt to take his family with him, I cannot say. It seems out of sorts with the man he was. Clearly Ilse visited him in Gibraltar (with her sister) so contact was not lost entirely. However, his daughter didn’t manage to visit him in his lifetime. It is clear from the letters Jock wrote to her when she was a teenager, that he loved her and very much regretted not being able to be with her.

Interestingly, in one of these letters, Jock encouraged Elizabeth to work hard and study hard. He reflected how many young people lived from day to day and needed to smoke dope to get by. I imagine this was the image of young people that Jock saw from managing, what by the, was a back-packers’ hostel.

It was said he thought ‘young’ and he was certainly a character. Once, when waiting for Toc H founder Tubby Clayton – a good friend of his – to arrive in Gibraltar by ship, Jock tired of waiting, jumped into the water, and swam out to greet the ship.

He is well remembered on Gibraltar even today. I posted about him in a Gibraltarian facebook group and received a number of replies. All thought he was a kind and lovely man. Many also commented on the hostel grounds and how they were overrun with birds and other wildlife. Many also commented on how peaceful a haven it was, away from the bustle of the Rock. How very similar to the garden of the original Talbot House where Jock first encountered Toc H.

Oh, and by the way, the hostel that Jock ran for so long, is now being turned into a boutique hotel!

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^{Several photos of the Toc H hostel after it had fallen into disrepair}

Acknowledgements

As ever I am thankful for assistance with this article. In this case I am especially grateful to Florian and Elizabeth Stollowsky without whom I wouldn’t have even begun.