March 2025
Arthur Bayliss Brown 1925 – 1967
In the 1967 season, the Captain of our 4th team was Arthur Brown, a hooker and a teacher by profession. The photo of him was taken on his PhD graduation day. Playing in a game at Lechmere Avenue, Arthur suffered a heart attack and collapsed on the pitch. No mobile phones, defibrillators nor even para medics, so when the ambulance crew arrived, it was too late, and they could not revive him.
It fell to one of his team mates on that fateful day, to contact Arthur’s wife and break the awful news to her and their young son Phil. Sam Coster and Alan Mortleman, both long serving members of the club later drove to West Mersea, to collect Arthur’s mum so that she could be with her family in Ilford.
Fast forward 58 years, and I was attending lunch at Wymondham RFC, when I was approached by a gentleman who told me he was there, not as a supporter but as someone who had a connection with Wanstead RFC. Astonishingly, it was Phil, Arthur’s son who, as a small child, had had to cope with the unimaginable grief of his father’s death. Sam Coster’s recollection of the events surrounding the tragedy remains vivid, and Phil has, at last, been given a little more information about what happened during that awful weekend.
Fate and chance, separated by 58 years, have conspired to come full circle and bring a tragedy to a very human conclusion.
Arthur is now on our memorial wall alongside so many of his mates.
Rest in peace Arthur.
Mike Calvert, President
