Victor Brown: Teacher who had passion for the past (From Oxford Mail)

Victor Brown: Teacher who had passion for the past

4:00pm Thursday 12th April 2012 in Obituaries

RETIRED Bayswater Secondary School teacher Victor Brown has died from cancer, at the age of 93.

Born Alfred Victor Brown in Cranham Street, Jericho, on January 24, 1919, Mr Brown was known to friends and family as Victor.

Educated first at St Barnabas Primary School, he won a scholarship to Magdalen College School.

Mr Brown worked at Oxford University Press before joining the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1939 as the Second World War broke out.

In 1941 he married Barbara Hut, who died in 2007, and they had two children, Tony and Pat.

His Army career lasted until 1961 and he rose to the rank of Major. He was posted to India, Burma and Ghana.

Mr Brown retrained as a teacher at Culham College, going on to specialise in history at Bayswater Secondary School in Headington.

He shared his passion for military history and the heritage of the city of Oxford with his pupils, many of whom remained in contact with him after his retirement in the early 1980s.

Mr Brown gave history talks on Jericho and Father Ignatius, and his passion for historical research also led him to write a history text book – A History of Britain 1939-1968 – his own memoirs of his wartime experience and a dissertation on the history of Ottmoor.

Granddaughter Clare O’Driscoll said: “He had a passion for literature and history, he was always reading. He loved words.”

He was a lifelong member of the congregation of St Barnabas Church in Hart Street, the church where he was baptised. In his later life he moved to Lucerne Road in Summertown where he was also active in local history and heritage.

Mr Brown died on Monday, April 2, at Sobell House hospice from prostate and bowel cancer. His funeral will be held at 11am next Thursday at St Barnabas Church. Mr Brown leaves two children, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.