Vic Brown was the Conservator in the Churchill Archives Centre from 1969 until his retirement in 1998. On leaving school, he took on an apprenticeship with the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts on a seven-year day release course. On achieving his City & Guilds, he carried out conservation work on London Underground maps. After a period working for the HM Stationery Office, he went to Reading University where he worked on medieval incunabula books, and from then on started to specialise in restoration work. One of the first members of staff to work in the Churchill Archives Centre, he was responsible for setting up the Centre’s first conservation workshop where he formulated processes for the conservation and preservation of papers in the Archives Centre. These papers included the Chartwell and Churchill papers and Vic’s skill and experience were critical to the safe preservation of these and other papers within the Archives Centre. His many memories and recollections have been captured in oral history recordings and he generously donated his own archive and photographs to the College before his death.
Vic Brown binding volumes in the old conservation lab. College archives, CCAR 999 2.
Paula Laycock
