South Yorkshire Times, April 1st, 1944
Brothers Meet Ater Six Years
In Ambulance Train in Italy
Thurnscoe brothers who had not previously seen each other since the death of their mother six years ago, met recently on an ambulance train in Italy, and are now in adjacent beds in hospital. They are Driver Edwin Collins R.A. and Private Stanley Brown, who is with the infantry.
In a letter to their sister, Mrs. D. Barlow, 20, Hanover Street, Thurnscoe, they describe their meeting. Driver Collins is serving with the Eighth Army and Private Brown with the Fifth Army. Had they not been sent to hospital; their chances of meeting would have been remote.
Private Brown is not yet 21. He joined up before he was 15 as a bugler, later becoming an infantry man. Driver Collins who is 24, was called up before the war. Their leaves never coincided, the nearest they came to meeting being an occasion three years ago on Darlington station, when Private Brown, as a member of a military band, was playing on the platform where his brother failed to attract his attention as the train that was carrying him to a port for embarkation abroad pulled out.
Driver Collins has served in North Africa, and both men have served in Italy since the beginning of the Italian campaign.