The Ron Penhall Collection

The Second World War Dieppe raid M.C. group of six awarded to Colonel The Rev. J. P. Browne, Canadian Army Chaplains’ Service: attached to the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada as a Medical Orderly, he performed gallant work on “Green Beach” until wounded in the head and leg - “we were so busy that eventually we didn’t hear the noise or notice what was going on ... I found out more about it from reading the papers than being there”

Military Cross, G.VI.R. reverse officially dated ‘1942’; 1939-45 Star; Defence Medal 1939-45, silver; Canadian Voluntary Service Medal 1939-45, with overseas clasp; War Medal 1939-45, silver; Canadian Forces Decoration, G.VI.R. (Lt. Col. J. P. Browne), mounted court-style as worn, generally good very fine (6) £3000-4000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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The Queen’s Own Camerons landed on “Green Beach” at Pourville, alongside the South Saskatchewans, under Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. Merritt, another V.C. winner, and, having been engaged inshore, returned to the beach for embarkation, only to find they had to wait for an hour under intense mortar fire before the first landing craft could get in close enough to pick up the first wave of men. It was during this period in particular that Chaplain Browne so distinguished himself, offering succour to the ever mounting casualties amidst a scene of complete carnage - ‘The beach was saturated with fire from the headlands to the east and west. Bullets and shell fragments seemed to fill the air on every square foot of the beach. To leave the shelter of the sea wall was to invite death or wounding ... ’ John Mellor’s Dieppe Raid refers). In fact, such was the ferocity of the enemy’s fire, that the South Saskatchewans and Camerons, who had landed on “Green Beach” with a combined strength of 1026 men, lost 685 in killed, wounded and captured - more than 65% percent of their combined strength.

It was while undertaking his gallant sorties to assist the wounded that Browne himself became a casualty, being wounded by a bullet in the head. But as the landing craft prepared to withdraw for a final time, he somehow managed to crawl towards one of them, even though hit again, this time just below his knee. At length, he managed to attach himself to a chain that was hanging down from the L.S.T’s raised ramp, thereafter being dragged along in the water as the craft withdrew, and it was some time before he was finally spotted and brought aboard, by which stage he had a lot of water on the lungs.

Such was the nature of his wounds that Browne remained in hospital until early 1943, but in May of the same year he returned to duty in the rank of Major, when he was appointed Senior Chaplain H.Q. Canadian Reinforcements Units. That November he returned to Canada, where, for the first time, he met his three-year old son. Browne, who attained the rank of Colonel before his retirement in 1964, latterly served as Deputy Chaplain-General at the Directorate of the Chaplain Services Branch of the Adjutant-General, Canadian Army H.Q., from 1958-63.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, comprising the recipient’s Record of Service, signed by Major-General W. A. B. Anderson, O.B.E., C.D., and dated 25 May 1964, in official folder (his Honour and Awards including entitlement to a ‘1st clasp’ to his C.D.); a letter from the Major-General conveying his best wishes on his impending retirement, dated 6 June 1963; two wartime Winnipeg newspaper cuttings, one announcing the award of his M.C. and the other reporting of his return to Canada in November 1943; and a copy of In This Sign, the history of the Canadian Army Chaplain Service.