Robert Macgregor Park Brown
Homeless Officer Born: April 4, 1929; Died: January 15, 2020.
THE several hundred people who thronged Crosshill Parish Church last month were there to celebrate the life of Robert Macgregor Park Brown, a man who had touched all of theirs. Like many who were born during the inter-war years, a period chastened by the Depression, a dearth of financial resources was to deny him the opportunity to access higher education.
In his memorable short story, The Verger, Somerset Maugham relates the tale of Albert Edward Foreman, an efficient and dutiful church verger. A new minister is shocked to discover that Mr Foreman can neither read nor write and, feeling this is unbecoming of his respectable parish, dismisses the poor chap. Years later the verger has become a successful tobacco merchant and his bank manager is similarly astonished when he learns his customer can’t read or write. “Good God, man, what would you be now if you had been able to?” “I can tell you that, sir,” said Mr Foreman, a little smile on his still-aristocratic features. “I’d be verger of St Peter’s, Neville Square.”
Not that this bright and vivid son of Lanarkshire was ever lacking in words written or spoken. He was a larger-than-life extrovert and a brilliant wordsmith, though not one inclined to deploy one word when 10 might do instead.
Like other able men and women of similar backgrounds Robert (popularly known as Roy) sought to make the best use of his talents during a lifetime of service and volunteering wherever he felt he could be of use. Inspired by his great friend, the Rev David Ferguson, he began a lifetime of devoted service to the Church of Scotland, which involved preaching, school visits and helping in the church’s mission to under-privileged and the homeless.
Not that he was any kind of remote and pious character. He combined all of this with his commitment as a Freemason to the Grand Lodge of Scotland and assorted Burns Clubs and golf clubs, where he was always in demand to speak at their events.
Robert Macgregor Park Brown was born in Hamilton on April 4, 1929, half an hour earlier than his twin brother David. They were two of seven children born to Jessie Russell Brown and James Brown. Roy attended Woodside Advanced School, and he was drawn to some of the organisations that came to define not only his childhood years but his adulthood too. He became a member of Cadzow Parish Church through the 5th Hamilton Lifeboys and Boys’ Brigade.
Many years later, he would return to Cadzow to conduct a service, telling his congregation that “any good in him” had been fostered by his time in the Lifeboys and BB. Leaving school at 14, he started work with the Clan Line Shipping Company in Glasgow in its book-keeping departments. He also became an army cadet at Muirhall, being promoted to corporal a few years later before choosing army for National Service. He was called up on May 8, 1944 and subsequently transferred to Austria with the Royal Army Service Corps.
Demobbed in 1949, he returned to his old job before joining the sales team of Gallaher’s, the cigarette company. He was a President of Hamilton Toast Masters Club; no address was complete without a glorious rendition of Matt Mcginn’s The Big Effen Bee. During this period he met Elizabeth who became his dance partner and his life companion until her own death in December, 2004, just three months short of their 50th wedding anniversary.
In June 1962, came an event that seemed to characterise him. Returning from work, he heard the desperate calls for help of a young boy, Peter O’neill, who was drowning in a railway storage tank. Roy dived in and, helped by another adult, managed to get Peter out.
The decision which came to define his values occurred in 1978 when he joined the Church of Scotland Social Responsibility unit at Kirkhaven. Inspired by his spiritual mentor Rev Ferguson, he spent the rest of his working life serving single homeless men at the church’s Night/day Centre on Glasgow’s Duke Street, where he became Officer in Charge.
Beyond his family, he maintained a lifelong commitment to two organisations: The Church of Scotland and the Grand Lodge of Scotland. He became a Freemason in 1953 and was a respected and fondlyregarded member of Lodge Hamilton Kilwinning No7 as well as several others and eventually rose to become Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge, twice. However, he always said his proudest day was when he installed his son Stephen as Right Worshipful Master in 1995, the Lodge’s 300th anniversary.
His friends recall a man of great compassion, who always looked out for others. In a good life, well-lived, this is how Robert Macgregor Park Brown is best remembered. He is survived by his son.