New president at local Legion branch

Tom Brown became the new president of the Tillsonburg branch of the Royal Canadian Legion earlier this year. He comes to the position with a significant military background. (Jeff Helsdon Photo)

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

There’s a new leader at the top of Branch 153 of the Royal Canadian Legion.

After Dianne Hodges 12 years at the helm of the Tillsonburg branch, Tom Brown took over as president, effective March 1.

Brown has been a Legion member for years, and a member in Tillsonburg for eight. He comes to the branch with a wealth of military experience.

A native of Sydney, Nova Scotia, he joined the military in 1966 after finishing high school, choosing to serve with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Brown served as an air defence technician initially. In that position, he worked at a radar site as part of the Defence Early Warning (DEW line) to watch for planes coming into the country.

“My job was to coordinate and assist controllers,” he said.

Brown’s job was also to send out Canadian aircraft if Russian planes came over Canada’s air space.

He spent a lot of this time stationed in Gander, Newfoundland, but was also in Quebec and Nova Scotia.

Figuring he wanted a change, Brown then switched to construction engineer, trained as a plumber/gas fitter and was stationed in Chilliwack, B.C. He retired from the military as manager of maintenance in Kingston as a Warrant Officer Construction Master Technician in 1995. Brown continued to work as a contractor for Defence Construction Canada, a Crown corporation , for a decade.

His sister and brother-in-law retired to Tillsonburg. Visiting them once, started another move.

“My wife said, ‘I really like this town’,” he recounted.

They sold their property in Kingston and moved to Tillsonburg.

“Tillsonburg is a really interesting town,” he said. “People in this town and surrounding area are so welcoming.”

He joined the Legion, and was asked to be sergeant-at-arms about a year after joining.

“I slid into that job because I had background in the military conducting services,” Brown said.

He was also service officer, helping veterans filling out paperwork for Service Canada and Veteran’s Affairs, and eventually moved up to vice-president. Hodges was zone commander for Zone B, and serving as president as well.

“She was doing both jobs,” Brown said. “Because I was vice-president, she would hand a lot of stuff off to me.”

Hodges continues to serve as zone commander and handed the role of president over to Brown.

As president, Brown has an executive committee to which he delegates jobs that need to be done. In addition, there is a sports officer, poppy chair and service officer.

“Everybody steps up and helps each other,” he said.

Brown is taking over the leadership of one of the healthiest branches of the Legion in the area. There are all kinds of activities, including snooker, darts, cards, and shuffleboard. The branch sponsors minor sports teams and the children’s chocolate bar bingo.

“We want to give back to youth as well,” Brown said.

A big focus of the branch is still the fundamental the Legion was founded on: helping veterans and their families. Tillsonburg holds a bi-weekly coffee hour for veteran’s that has grown in a short time to over 30 participants.

“We want that comradeship,” Brown said. “We want them to realize they’re not alone out there.”

He added they do everything they can to assist at the branch level or with dealing with veteran’s affairs.

“We don’t want to see veterans homeless and, on the streets – absolutely that shouldn’t happen,” he said.

They also have a buddy system so veterans aren’t sitting at home alone.

Tillsonburg and the Legion has become a family thing for the Browns. After Tom moved to town, his brother Joe followed. He was with the Black Watch. Brother-in-law Claude Archbeault is also a member, and will be helping more if the new president has his way.