Harry Morrow Brown revisited

Older readers of this blog – and indeed many older allergy sufferers – will remember Dr Harry Morrow Brown, an indefatigable searcher after allergy truth, who died nearly ten years ago. As a doctor he was endlessly curious and if a conventional solution to an allergy problem did not immediately present, he would worry around the subject until eventually he found an unconventional one. He was also endlessly inventive. As I said in my post after he died:

Harry belonged to the Leonardo da Vinci school of investigation – if you cannot find a tool to do what you want, invent one. A useful skill in the early days of allergy research when he developed, among many other devices, a wet smear method of searching for eisinophils, a spore trap to enable him to take regular pollen and spore counts, a way to use patients’ own housedust mite to test for allergy, portable air sampling devices, a standardised skin testing needle, a re-breathing bronchial provocation test and a microspoon to hold just the right amount of grass pollen for nasal provocation. Up until last year he was still studying the inorganic crystals which are found in the air in certain weather conditions.

Harry was too a passionate believer in the value of case histories. ‘No one these days pays enough attention to the patient’s history. No matter how many tests you do, you will never get to the root of more complex problems without careful consideration of the patient’s history.’

For more about him see my In memorian post here – or, a great deal better, go to the fascinating website, Allergies Explained, that he built in his late 80s when ‘all referring bodies thought that he was either dead or ga-ga so no longer referred patients to him.’

However, this brief post is not about his skills as an allergy doctor – but a tribute to the magic powers of the internet to connect us with possibly trival but none the less fascinating facts from the past.

So……..

A week or so ago I received an email from a lady called Jean whose father had been  a corporal in Northern Ireland during the war. Her mother had died a few years ago and while finally sorting out her affairs Jean had come across a couple of tin boxes. One contained a photograph of a suited man striding down a city street with the name Harry Morrow Brown on the back, a hairdressers’ card also with Harry’s name on the back and several group photographs. Many of these were of what looks like a variety show in the style of ‘If it ain’t ‘alf ‘ot Mum’. The second contained a letter, dated November 1944, from Harry father to Jean’s father giving the latter contact details for Harry who was, it seems, in charge of the train running between the Burma front and Lahore.

Curious, Jean Googled Harry’s name and came up with my in memorian post. Her curiosity further piqued, she emailed me.

We know that Jean’s father was in Northern Ireland during the war and I have a vague recollection of Harry saying that part of his war had also been spent in the north and mentioning Limavady (where Jean’s dad was also posted). Since Jean also found two fahrenheit thermometers in her tin box, we reckon that they must have met there in the medical corp. As Jean says, her father was just a lowly corporal whereas Harry, as a doctor, was further up the pecking order. However, Harry was a friendly soul and I am sure would have had no problem in ‘associating’ with other ranks. The inclusion of the hairdressing card from the Union Jack Club would definitely suggest that was the case as, according to the club’s website:

The Union Jack Club was founded in 1903 by a formidable lady nurse called Miss McCaul as a club for non commissioned servicemen…… While officers had their clubs, servicemen below commissioned rank had nowhere reputable to stay when alone, or with their families, in the nation’s capital. Miss McCaul was determined that they should have the opportunity to have this and to see London and all its sights, but at no more of a cost than one day’s pay. 

We know from other sources that Harry was drafted to India in 1942 where he ended up in medical charge of half of what was then known as Ceylon (Sri Lanka) – which presumably came after his stint on the railways referred to by his father.

What a wonderful thing is the internet that it enables such connections to be made. I do hope that they found each other in the vastness that was India. If only Harry were here and I were to ask him, I am sure he would remember.