Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Leading Aircraftman Roy Brown (Service No:24863) enlisted in the RAAF on 7 February 1941 as an Aircraftman I, mustered as a Flight Rigger. He was attached to No 2 Elementary Flying Training School Archerfield when he was Discharged (Medically Unfit) on 16 April 1942.

Roy stated in his Attestation Papers that he was born in Wellington, NZ in 1907 ( Birth Certificate not sighted) and was a Widow with three children under 16 years and one over 16 years. In reality, he was born Roy Morley Bowen (b21 March 1903 in Wagga Wagga NSW), seventh of eight children of John James Bowen (b1864 in Epping, Victoria) and Alice Mary McGill (b1875 in Albury, NSW). John and Alice married in 1893 in Hay, NSW, and settled in Wagga Wagga where they raised their family. Alice died in 1912, and by the 1930s John had moved to Melbourne, Victoria.

In 1923 Roy was a Farmer at Fish Creek in Gippsland, Victoria when he married Ivy Harriet Thompson (b1903 in Woodford, Victoria). Roy and Ivy and their children moved to Mackay, QLD in the 1930s - where they Divorced. In 1941 Roy was working as a Cartage Contractor in Brisbane QLD when he remarried Ida Elizabeth Hughes (b1910 in Sydney, NSW). In 1943 Roy was imprisoned in Brisbane for selling liquor without a licence, and through 1944 to 1946 was imprisoned for 12 months in Sydney NSW for Receiving. By 1949 official searches were underway for Roy as a Missing Bankrupt - believed to have been living at Bondi Junction in Sydney, NSW. Roy and Ivy had separated and Ivy was a Cafe Owner in Sydney before their Divorce in 1951. 

Roy relocated to Perth WA where he married his third wife Teruko and died in 1989.