occupation

Chief Officer of the Fire Brigade
and Safety Engineer, The Pressed
Steel Company, Cowley, Oxford

dates

Born : Oxford 28 September 1911

Married: Dorothy KING, Oxford, 31 July 1937

Died: Oxford 1 May 1989

residence

Before marriage: Thames Street, Oxford

On marriage: Bartholomew Road, Cowley,
                       Oxford

Later: Gidley Way, Horspath, Oxfordshire

submitted by

Mike BROGDEN, (son) mike.brogden@virgin.net

relevant website

www.brogden.info

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

The photographs may be freely copied.

Background information

Les BROGDEN left school at 14 and became an apprentice blacksmith at Lucy’s Ironworks, Oxford.  On completion, he sought the higher pay available at the Pressed Steel Company.  He joined the works fire brigade and was appointed its first salaried Chief Officer, a post that also carried responsibility for the safety of the workers.  He was awarded an MBE for his services to industrial safety in 1974.  He was active with the British Fire Services Association (becoming President), was a Bullingdon District Councillor and Horspath Parish Councillor, a school governor, an amateur actor with the Cowley Community Association Drama Group, a member of several committees of the Community Association and looked after a large garden.

Les was one of the six children of Joseph Arthur BROGDEN, who had started working life as a boy at Cogges Farm, near Witney where he was born, and joined the Oxford City Police Force in 1893.  Joseph’s father was a farm labourer, as were all of his ancestors who can be traced back to George BROGDEN who married Elizabeth BROWN at Bampton in 1709.  The records do not show where George BROGDEN came from, but interestingly he was a blacksmith.  The Oxfordshire branch of the BROGDENs has many offshoots in the west of the county and in Berkshire and there are relatives in Australia and New Zealand whose ancestors looked for new lives after the agricultural depression of the later 1800s.  The surname originates in the old West Riding of Yorkshire.