LONDON – When Peter Brown died alone in London without having any recognized household, neighbors created positive that the humble 96-year-old Jamaican man who had volunteered as a teen to fight for Britain in Planet War II was not forgotten.

Hundreds of folks – largely strangers — touched by his story answered the contact Thursday, and packed St. Clement Danes Church to give the former flight sergeant a appropriate send-off.

The Rev. Ruth Hake mentioned that when Brown left his Jamaican residence at 17 in 1943 there was no guarantee he’d return residence — like millions of other people who gave their lives in Planet War II.

“The willingness that he showed then and the subsequent seven years that he served in the Royal Air Force to place his life on the line on behalf of this nation … is a debt that all of us who who have undoubtedly lived our lives in freedom in this nation have to honor,” Hake mentioned. “That is why there are so a lot of folks right here at the funeral of such a modest and unassuming man.”

Brown was one particular of about five,500 guys from the Caribbean who volunteered immediately after the RAF dropped its “colour bar” in 1939 and started recruiting in its colonies in what was then recognized as the British West Indies.

The biggest group, some three,700, came from Jamaica. Most of these recruits had been ground employees only 450 had been aircrew.

Brown educated in Jamaica and Canada and became a radio operator and gunner, flying 5 missions on Lancaster bombers in the final year of the war.

He was one particular of the final of a generation that is quickly disappearing and most likely one particular of the final of the group dubbed the “Pilots of the Caribbean.” The youngest of these who served are in their 90s.

When Brown died at his residence in December, the Westminster City Council attempted to locate his household. As news of his death spread, historians, military researchers, genealogists, and neighborhood groups took up the result in, and interest grew.

What had as soon as been planned as a modest service at a crematorium had to be postponed and relocated to the spiritual residence of the RAF, the expansive church dating back 1,000 years that had to rebuilt immediately after becoming largely destroyed by a German incendiary bomb in 1941.

Susan Hutchinson, who has spent the final 4 years attempting to get recognition for troops from the Caribbean who fought for England in each globe wars, mentioned that, if Brown’s neighbors hadn’t drawn focus to his life, she fears that he would have been yet another Black service member buried in a pauper’s grave and forgotten.

“Our Black soldiers who have fought for this nation in Planet War I, as nicely as Planet War II, have had no recognition,” she mentioned. “They have not been provided a appropriate grave with a appropriate headstone. They’ve been buried in pits, mass graves, our soldiers, our Black soldiers. … Our ancestors are not represented. We look to be ignored everywhere, just about every time, so that is the purpose why I’m right here right now.”

Six RAF pallbearers carried Brown’s flag-draped coffin on their shoulders as Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod” was played on the pipe organ through the procession. A spray of red and white roses, two of his medals and an RAF dress cap sat atop the Union Jack at the front of the church.

Some 600 seats had been reserved for the public and most had been filled, a lot of by folks with Jamaican roots, as nicely as a couple of distant relatives who discovered of his death and various other people who believed they may well be connected. Dozens of RAF officers and enlisted personnel wore dress blues.

Leonie Gutzmore, who lives in England, mentioned an aunt saw the news about Brown’s death, recognized he was a relative and notified household back in Jamaica.

Her grandmother, Myrtle Gutzmore, whose husband is Brown’s very first cousin, had been due to go to England, so she attended the funeral with other household. She was pleased so a lot of folks honored him.

“All of it is really touching,” Leonie Gutzmore mentioned. “His age, that he got so far, that there had been no recognized relatives. Had we recognized who he was we would have been capable to assistance him. But it was seriously good to hear that his nearby neighborhood looked immediately after him in a location exactly where we weren’t capable to do so.”

Brown was remembered by a neighbor, Melvyn Caplan, as a gracious individual with an old-college charm who lived a really private life. He liked to inform folks that he’d lived longer in the Maida Vale neighborhood — some 50 years — longer than everyone else.

He seldom spoke of his time in combat, Caplan mentioned. Just after the war, he returned to Jamaica to function with household in the coconut business in Kingston but returned to England, exactly where he re-enlisted, increasing to the rank of flight sergeant. He flew missions in Tripoli, Egypt, and Malta and left the forces in 1950.

He later became a civil servant in the defense division.

In the neighborhood, he was recognized for easy items he liked: cheese, onion crisps, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bars, Bell’s Whisky with a splash of ginger ale and the sport of cricket.

With his self-deprecating bearing, Brown would have complained about folks producing a fuss more than his death, Caplan mentioned.

“He was a proud and dignified gentleman,” Caplan mentioned. “His resilience was astounding till the really finish, adamant not to inconvenience these that showed any care or concern. We will miss his smile and the customary sign off: ‘Cheerio, my dear, have a excellent day!’ With that, we would rush off back to our lives, and he to his.”

Just after the mournful notes of Final Post on trumpet echoed in the church, there was silence. Then Reveille, one particular far more hymn and a blessing, and Brown’s casket was carried back out of the church and driven away in a hearse.

In maintaining with his character, his burial was private.

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