John Brown

John Brown had a very eventful and varied life. He was a parachute instructor, school teacher, RAF officer, rugby international, Olympic bobsledder and property developer. Born in London just before World War II, Brown was born within the sounds of “bow bells” thus making him a true Cockney. When enemy bombs destroyed his father’s business, the family moved to Somerset where Brown grew up. At school he played rugby, hockey and cricket, but excelled in the former, and soon captained the school first XV and represented Somerset schools. At the age of 17 he played senior rugby for Yeovil before a move to Northampton.

Brown did his two years National Service with the Royal Signals Regiment from 1954, and when he returned to Northampton in 1956 he decided he wanted a change of career and moved to St. Luke’s College, Exeter, to train as a teacher. After two years, he took up his first teaching post in London and joined the famous Blackheath rugby club. He was a Somerset county player at the time but, upon moving to London, switched his allegiance to his county of birth, Middlesex, much to the annoyance of Somerset. A former England schoolboy, he played in a senior England trial in 1960 but broke his ankle four days later and he was out of action for the rest of the season. It also cost him his chance to play for England, which never came along again. Later that year Brown left teaching and joined the RAF and became a parachute instructor. He played rugby for the RAF and the Combined Services, and in 1962, toured South Wales with the Barbarians and then South Africa with the British Lions. The following year he switched clubs again and joined Harlequins.

A fellow officer in the RAF was Mike Freeman, a member of the British Olympic bobsleigh squad and he talked John into joining the team, and at St. Moritz in 1968, Brown was a member of the British team that won a bronze medal at the European Championships. It was the first time a British team had won a 4-man medal. Later that year he was in the GBR 2 team that finished 14th at the Grenoble Olympics.

Although he was widely known as John Brown, in the rugby world he was known simply by his initials HJC. He retired from rugby in 1970, and from the RAF in 1976, having survived an IRA bomb attack four years earlier. Brown then acted as a selector for the RAF and Middlesex rugby teams, and went into business as a property builder and developer in an affluent part of Surrey.