Roy Brown (Manitoba politician)
| Francis Roy Brown | |
|---|---|
| Born |
13 September 1896 Stockton, Manitoba, Canada |
| Died | November 30, 1960 (aged 64) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
| Occupation | Aviator, politician |
| Spouse(s) | Edith Mae Diana Peverette |
| Children | Nola Peverette Brown b. 1928 Georgia Grier Brown, b.1935 |
| Parent(s) | Thomas Atkinson Brown, Rachel Rose Rubina Grier |
Francis Roy Brown (September 13, 1896 in Stockton, Manitoba – November 30, 1960) was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Liberal-Progressive from 1953 to 1958.
Brown was educated in Winnipeg. He enlisted in the Cycle Corps at the beginning of World War I, and served overseas in France, seeing action at Ypres, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. Brown joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1917, and remained with this group until the end of the war.
Francis Roy Brown was throughout his life mistaken for the pilot that shot down Baron Von Richthofen, a.k.a."The Red Baron". That credit remains with A. Roy Brown, of Carleton Place, Ontario. Both Roy Browns were enlisted with the Royal Flying Corps at the same time. They both returned to Canada with English 'war brides', and both established their careers in the early aviation industry flourish of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. For the remainder of their lives, F. Roy Brown would be known as "Arctic Roy", while A. Roy Brown was known as "Richthofen Roy". They met for the first time at a POW reunion in 1937.
Brown was intrinsic to the discovery of a group of seven men who were lost in the Arctic in late 1929. It was the greatest air search and rescue in Canadian history and remains as such, given they had no radar or radios. Col. C.D.W. MacAlpine and his exploration party of cartographers, geographers from McGill University set off to the chart the North, and after the undercarriage collapsed in their aircraft, they were lost in the far northern reaches of the Arctic, near Baker Lake see The Montreal Gazette November–December articles entitled "Lost in the Barrens!".
After the war, he was one of four who founded Western Canada Airways in Manitoba, and was superintendent and chief pilot of the company's airmail operations from 1930 to 1932. He was Manager of the Lac du Bonnet government airbase during the early 1930s. He helped establish Wings Limited, and Central Northern Airways, a predecessor of TransAir Limited, in 1947, and served as its vice-president. He was also a member of the Winnipeg Flying Club, and an executive on the Wartime Pilots' & Observers Association. During World War II he was a test pilot for McDonald Brothers now Bristol Aerospace. Brown had a legacy association with A.V.Roe, having flown numerous single engine planes designed by Roe during his extensive years of bush flying.
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