Brown, Rex Pendril

He was married to Elizabeth.

He worked as a bank clerk in Toronto and Vancouver.

He served as Assistant Keeper at Fiddle Reef Lighthouse. When Pen Brown became Assistant Keeper at Cape Mudge Light Station in 1955 he worked directly for the Senior Keeper who paid him his salary and set out his work routine. Assistants were not eligible in those days for any civil service benefits.

In 1957 he szerved as Keeper at Pine Island Lighthouse.

In 1967 he transferred to Victoria BC coordinating supply and services to the Lighthouses. Pen Brown is familiar to light station families as Santa Claus, a role he assumed in 1978 when the previous Santa retired. By this time Brown had taken a position in lighthouse supply at the Coast Guard base in Victoria when he was approached about taking on the role on the retirement of George Thomas who had created the role. Presents were ordered, wrapped, and loaded on the supply vessel. A Santa suit was rented until later on when the women at the Estevan Light sewed a custom made suit for him to use. Accompanying the crew on their monthly rounds, Santa Claus would disembark at fifteen light stations to visit almost thirty children over a week-long period.

He occasionally travels by helicopter to reach local areas but always by ship to reach further destinations. A volunteer effort entirely paid for by contributions from participating lightkeepers the tradition is maintained now in retirement by Brown and by Jim West Lyons in the Prince Rupert District. In the early days Brown had a lot of freedom in how he operated his light. Pay was low and he sometimes earned extra money doing odd jobs. When the roof on his house was replaced by a visiting contract carpenter Brown was allowed to work as his helper for extra pay, in addition to performing his usual twelve hour shift! Safety concerns were not as prominent in those days. In the engine room twenty foot long drive belts powering air compressors with red hot exhaust pipes on the Fairbanks Morse engines were all exposed to staff and children alike. The first time the lights went off he was shocked to have to restart the engine by standing directly on the spokes of the flywheel which was larger than he was! This was a normal situation in those days which has long since changed to the highest safety standards today. As his seniority increased Brown was then appointed to his own light station at Fiddle Reef.

He was married during this appointment and was not allowed official leave for the ceremony, but an informal leave was arranged for 24 hours. Known as the "honeymoon station" he and his wife lived for six months in the tiny lighthouse which had a single bedroom upstairs large enough only for a matress. The living area downstairs was only 12' x 12' and the only place to walk was exposed when the tide went out as the island practically disappeared at high tide and in storms. The move to Pine Island in 1957 brought more enjoyable living conditions and they stayed for ten years.

In 1967 during a severe storm, Pine Island Light Station was partially demolished by a giant episodic wave that took out he engine house, but miraculously left the rest of Light Station and tower untouched. These freakish waves are created during storm conditions but are not the product of seismographic behaviour. A similar wave recently hit the giant liner QE2. This station was isolated more than most others. Transportation was left to the keeper to arrange. Sickness, death or toothache, it was all up to the keeper to find a way out and back. Hiring a boat from Port Hardy was a perilous and expensive undertaking. For the birth of their daughter Mrs. Brown travelled to Vancouver in the Light Tender six weeks before the event. Pen followed after she was born.

He had to arrange his own way back to the Light at the end of his leave. At Port Hardy his brother-in-law, a competent seaman, took them in his gillnetter. The voyage was in flat calm conditions but when they arrived at the light it was low tide.

They had to crawl, with the newborn baby, more than 60' up the slippery seaweed covered rocks. The episode was repeated two years later with the birth of their son the landing was much more terrifying. This time they travelled in the CCGS Camsell "luxuriously" in the official cabin. It was rough on arrival and the work boat taking them ashore rose and fell more than six feet each time a wave arrived. After jumping ashore a sailor handed the new baby to him on one of the swells. After grabbing the "bunny bag" he discovered the baby was upside down.

They always had complete confidence in the mates and seamen in those days.