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The wrong date that went right
Feb 13 2006 By Poppy Brady, Birmingham Mail
THEY met while they were both waiting for other dates to turn up, but 60 years on Pat and Fred Brown are more than happy with the change of heart they had all those years ago.
Fred went on to marry the pretty girl he met standing in Birmingham's Corporation Street and they celebrate their Diamond wedding anniversary on Thursday.
It's an extra special celebration as their two great granddaughters are over from Sydney, Australia, to join in the fun.
Four generations of the Brown family are together for a date former RAF acting sergeant Fred thought he would never see.
During World War II he was captured by the Japanese in Java and spent three and a half years in the notorious Changi Prison and was put to work on the Burma Railway.
"I went to war weighing eleven and a half stone and I came home weighing five," said Fred, 83, who is still a member of the Far Eastern Prisoners of War Association.
Fred went on to work as an area stores manager and settled down to family life with Pat, also 83, in Erica Close, Selly Oak.
They have three children David, 59, Janet, 57, and 45-year-old Phil, a former Birmingham Post journalist. Of their seven grandchildren, Lisa emigrated to Sydney in 1998.
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