Sad news. Joan Brown passed away on June 18. One of Esca Brooke Daykin’s two surviving grandchildren, Joan was born in Toronto to John Beverley Robinson and Kathleen Brooke-Daykin in 1936. She attended Ryerson, where she met her future husband Ron. After marriage, she moved with him to Deep River, where Ron worked at the Atomic Energy Chalk River Labs. They had two children, Leslie and Steven. They all survive Joan, as does her older sister, Shirley Cooke.

Joan was very proud of her grandfather, and had many happy memories of him. She put many of those reminiscences to paper, and some of them have been included in the print edition of Canadian Rajah. I am very grateful for her support and encouragement over the years, as well as her first person accounts of her grandfather. Joan was a woman of humour and insight, with an active, inquiring mind and impressive strength of character. She will be missed.

A few months after the passing of Joan Brown, her elder sister Shirley Cooke also passed away. Shirley was a great help to the writing of ‘Canadian Rajah’ and, like her sister, freely contributed memories of her grandfather, as well as photographs and documents. She was hugely encouraging and shared her sister’s dry wit and piercing intelligence. It was a privilege to work with her.