A different life began for Captain Stanley Branson Brown and his wife Jean Elizabeth Brown when they arrived back in Suva in 1954.
After eight years in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, a small coral islet in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the Browns were almost shell-shocked when they were plunged into the hustle and bustle of Suva – a burgeoning Colonial outpost which was morphing into a South Pacific metropolis of sorts.
“While we were in Suva he couldn’t get a job, and he was pestering the Governor,” Mrs Brown said.
“Stan was writing letters all the time, urging the Governor that Fiji was ready to have a navy.
“But the answer was always the same, ‘sorry no money’.”
Not long after they returned, the Fiji Naval Volunteer Reserve was formed and in 1957 Captain Brown attended the British hydrogen bomb test at Christmas Island with a party of reserve personnel.
The reserve was disbanded in 1959 due to a lack of funds and for the first time she saw real hopelessness and despair in her husband.
“It remains one of my saddest memories. “But there is always a light at the end of a tunnel.”
The captain bought the Queen of Tonga’s yacht, the ketch Hifofua for £500 ($F1357), renamed her Maroro and began a charter and diving business which covered tanker moorings and he sailed all over the Pacific.
Being an ex-serviceman Captain Brown was given the opportunity to buy land at Vatuvia Rd in Lami at a discounted price.
Other ex-servicemen did so and their descendants still live or own the properties there today.
The Browns built their home and raised their family there. On returning to Fiji she found secretarial work with the Colonial Secretary’s office, nothing she would not have been familiar with from her time in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands.
It was while she was there that she had an extremely unique experience — even for civil servants who work under different leaders — who tend to change every now and then.
Whenever the private secretary — the Governor of Fiji’s secretary — would go on leave Mrs Brown was tasked with relieving duties.
“I was down in the colonial secretary’s office, I was the colonial secretary’s secretary.
“So whenever the private secretary would go on leave I would relieve the private secretary at Government House.”
Ms Brown worked under Colonial Secretary A Stoddart, who had acted as Governor of Fiji twice in his eight years as Colonial Secretary.
She relieved the private secretaries of governors Sir Brian Freeston, Sir Ronald Garvey, Sir Kenneth Maddocks, and Sir Derek Jakeway.
She remembers Sir Ronald as being “a lovely man”.
“He had been in Fiji as a district officer and was a very humane person who never threw his weight around.”
Sir Kenneth she remembers as being very quiet and said he really kept to himself.
“He didn’t really mix with anyone.”
Sir Derek, she said, was not very nice.
“They all had different views on how governors should rule.”
Sir Robert Sidney was the last Governor of Fiji and she saw the instruments of independence handed to then Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Kapaiwai Tuimacilai Mara. S
he said the highlight of her time in the civil service was during preparations for Queen Elizabeth II’s visit after independence in 1973. The strict protocol involved a rehearsal where Ms Brown was chosen to act as the Queen for a day.
Ratu Mara and Adi Lady Lala met her at the Kings Wharf, bowed, shook hands and did the cobo as they would have to the queen.
She was driven through the streets of Suva in the royal car to meet the mayor and councillors of Suva at the Town Hall en route to Government House. People lined the streets and shopkeepers rushed out waving.
Ms Brown thought nothing of it until one day while she was out doing her marketing and people began bowing and curtseying because they believed she was “the Queen”.
She was accorded a full welcome ceremony at Albert Park met by her boss at the time Ratu Sir George Cakobau, who became Governor General of Fiji in 1973.
“With a twinkle in his eye he escorted me and my “husband” to the VIP seats. When the first bilo of kava came up the stairs I looked to Ratu George and he nodded at me to drink it.”
She was brought back to reality and resumed her role of private secretary when they arrived at Government House and rushed over to the kitchen to supervise the preparations for the royal lunch the following day.
Ms Brown said Ratu George was appointed to the position because he was considered to be the highest ranking chief in Fiji, holding titles such as Tui Levuka and Vunivalu of Bau.
By that time Ratu George’s first marriage to Adi Veniana Gavoka had ended and he caused quite a stir when he remarried Lelea Seruwaia Balekiwai.
There might be a title missing from her name, but that is because Adi Lelea, as she was known, was not an Adi. Ms Brown said she was a true beauty who caught the eye and attention of the highest chief in the land and was “just a lovely person”.
Being the secretary to the Governor General she practically lived with Ratu George and his family and for a time her own family lived at Berkley Crescent and would sneak into the compound of Government House to play.
She said Adi Lelea’s biggest scandal was on her first trip to Bau, where she walked across the island with her shoes on – which Ms Brown said was unheard of. “I’m not sure if she did it deliberately or not but it was not like any one could do anything about it.”
Ratu George was a dear friend to both Captain and Ms Brown.
She had invited Ratu George and Adi Lelea over for dinner one night, it should have been a informal dinner with a light atmosphere. Ms Brown’s right hand woman, Sainimili — who raised the children and looked after the house — came out of the kitchen to serve the soup and seeing Ratu George seated at the table, crawled around the room serving the soup.
To this day she keeps one of the official family photographs of Ratu George and Adi Lelea in her family photo albums.
She worked under Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau when he became Governor General following Ratu George’s retirement in February 1983. She was also at Government house when the first coup in May 1987 happened.
Ms Brown said she was used to being driven around in the Governor General’s official vehicle and on that day the car was brought around to take her home but she said she would be fine.
She stayed with Ratu Penaia until he passed away as President of the Republic of the Fiji Islands and then with Ratu Mara when he was appointed President.
She eventually retired and went to live with her daughter Katrina and sonin-law Peter on her family’s estate at Balaga — surrounded by the natural beauty of Vanua Levu.
When she celebrated her 100th birthday at Balaga on November 19 she was surrounded by friends and family, she was the picture of a woman who has lived a full life and without a doubt a good one.
- Next week we bring you what her family had to say about this remarkable woman
