Rotarian Michael Bran, RIP

Michael Bran, faithful Rotarian from 28 September 1966 to 27 April 2025

In 1963 Ted Morse, a Swindon jeweller and a member of the then only Rotary Club in Swindon, was given the task of forming a new Rotary Club in the northern area of Wiltshire.  The Rotary Club of Swindon had existed since 1926 and it was felt that due to the rapid growth of the Town, a second club was needed to adequately serve the community.

Ted Morse called a meeting at the Blunsdon House Hotel and it was attended by the Rev Brian Carne, Rector of Lydiard Millicent, Niall Gurrey, an accountant at Morris Owen, Tony Geden, Manager of Lloyds Bank in Highworth, Tom Magson, Headmaster of Headlands Grammar School, and Michael Bran who had a pharmacy in Highworth. 

This small group was tasked with finding more like-minded men to reach the required number needed to form a Rotary Club.  By 1965 the target of 25 was reached and a formal inaugural meeting was convened on 28th April 1966 at the Goddard Arms Hotel which at that time was the best hotel in Swindon. The new club, the Rotary Club of North Wiltshire, received its Charter dated 28th September 1966 at a formal dinner, also at the Goddard Arms, on 7th November 1966.

Only 23 of the 25 founder members were able to come to the Charter Presentation dinner.  Gerald Billingham, a GP, and Michael Bran, a pharmacist, both claimed to be working late.

In 1969/70 Michael served as Club President, the Club’s third.

It’s interesting to note that at that time Michael’s hobbies were listed as Local Government and Golf.  He was a Councillor on Highworth Town Council for many years.

In the pictures –

• Mike & Bridget in Bruges on the Rotary Club’s Fellowship weekend away in 2006.
• Mike with Club President 1999/2000 Graham Randall making a presentation to a charity representative.
• Mike and Bridget at the Club Service Committee’s end-of-year meal at the New Inn in Lechlade in June 1989
• Michael and Bridget’s boat “Cardones”
• Michael’s picture on the funeral card

A funeral service for Michael Bran was held at St Michael’s Church, Highworth on 28 May 2025

The service included this “Memories of Michael” given by Rotarian Bill Fishlock (Swindon Rotary Club)

"I am going to try and make some connections with you as I talk about Michael. 

I joined Morris Owen an accountancy firm in Swindon in October 1964 and one of the partners in the firm was Niall Gurrey.  Niall and Nina and Mike and Bridget have been friends for many years, but Nina died in February this year.  Niall is now 100 and I managed to talk to him a few days ago to ask about his first memory of Michael. He remembers meeting Michael on the Rugby field while playing for Swindon. There was a 10 year age gap between them so I think Niall was leaving rugby as Michael joined.

Morris Owen had a couple of offices in the Swindon and I eventually joined Niall in the Milton Rd office in 1968, and at that time I realised that Niall was a member of Rotary.   What I now know is that Niall, Michael and Peter Clifford were founding members of the Rotary Club of North Wiltshire, which was formed in September 1966.  Michael was President of the club in 1969/70.  President is effectively the top position in a Rotary Club and remained a club member or honorary member from formation right up to his death.

One of the main mottoes of Rotary is “Service above Self”, or the vision of placing the needs of others ahead of personal concerns.

The thing I find incredible is that Michael joined Rotary at the age of 31. Indeed, Michael used to comment that he was probably a bit too young to join.  The Rotary Club still exists and it's great to see club members here today to honour one of their founding members.  What we could do with is a lot more people joining Rotary at 31.

So let's move to another aspect of life with Mr. Bran and that's business, I reckon I was introduced to Mr. Bran when he moved accountants from the South Coast to someone closer, which was around 1972.  Many of you will know about the shop in Highworth, but from 1972 onwards JWH Brown Chemist Limited, which was the trading name of the company, started to acquire pharmacy shops in and around Swindon and various villages. Eventually there were 12 branch shops, including one animal feed depot in Tetbury which delivered to Princess Anne.   Mr Bran was very proud of that.

At this time Morris Owen were helping with keeping records for the company and I remember having huge cash books being prepared by various members of staff so that Morris Owen could prepare accounts for each individual shop for Mr. Ban to look at.   No Excel spreadsheets in the 1970’s. 

I became a member of the Swindon Rotary Club when I was 36, which was in 1981 and Mr. Bran said I could call him Michael!    Eventually the company installed the biggest computer in the world and took on an in-house accountant to deal with it.

So having built this highly successful business, Michael then decided to sell it, with seven shops going in one tranche, followed by three in the second tranche, coming back to the Highworth shops, which eventually were sold as well.    All of this went on in the limited company and a couple of years ago Michael finally liquidated the company. I know we have shop staff with us today to say a goodbye to Mr Bran. 

So let’s move from 1972 to 1984, which was the year Michael and Bridget got married, which means they have just celebrated 40 years together. Of course in that time the family has grown and now includes 7 grandchildren who are a great joy to Michael and Bridget.   That is when they see them, because Michael and Bridget always seemed to be away on holiday.   Either on a cruise or going to Tenerife for the odd month.

One of the grandchildren asked if they had been to some far away country.  Bridget said “No”, Michael said “Oh yes we have.”   Indeed, the grandchildren have done a count and its more than 100 countries visited.

I’m going to change date again to 1986 when Michael put the boat “Cardones” on the water. The photo on the back of the order of service shows the boat. Looking at it quickly, I am told that most people would expect it to have been built by the Nelson Company. But no, this is a very one off design between Michael and John Freeman, a boat surveyor.

When the initial design was showed to Bridget she suggested that it would be a good idea to have a shower and extra wardrobe in the back cabin, so to achieve this a 40 foot aqua star hull was bought and cut in half and a 2 foot length of hull inserted and everything resealed. The boat length is now 42 feet and Bridget has her shower and wardrobe.

The boat was built by Elephant Boatyard, which was the backdrop for the TV show Howards Way. She had twin Penta Volvo engines and cruised at just under 20 knots per hour.

This is an ocean going vessel and was designed for long trips such as going across the channel and up the River Seine to Paris where there is a marina right in the middle of the city.    That was the only time Michael made a major change to the boat as it was so hot in Paris that when they came back he had an air conditioning system put into the boat. 

I've been lucky enough to have a number of trips with Michael on the boat which started with a boys week away, usually with Ed Harvey, John Perons, Michael and myself. I was very much the cabin boy in that team where my major responsibility was making sure the wine was open at 6pm.

One story about being out on the boat with the three of them and my inexperience of being on the water. We came into Dartmouth and parked (moored) the boat on the floating mooring in the middle of the tidal river. We were going into the town for some food, which meant we took the dinghy off the back of the boat and all of us motored in to the embankment wall.  Once we had climbed up the wall, I volunteered to tie the dinghy up so it wouldn’t float off down the river. Which I did, and I thought I'd made a good job of it.

I turned around to find the three of them in fits of laughter, because I had tied the dinghy up tight to the wall and had forgotten that the tide was going out and that in a couple of hours the water level would fall and the dinghy would be hanging by the rope up against the wall. I certainly didn't make that mistake again.

When we were away we usually ate out at various restaurants, but occasionally we would eat on board. This was made easier when Bridget made various casseroles and pies etc to take with us. There were always tins of provisions on the boat, so when we were looking forward to a lovely apple pie we looked for a tin of custard to go with it. And only found low fat custard. Imagine our disappointment.   Actually none of us refused it and it was very good.

Michael and Bridget were very generous with invitations to join them on “Cardones”, which included friends and of course family.  Where I understand Michael usually had to decide which of the various grandchildren travelling with them was the noisiest!   The boat was sold three years ago but will always be remembered by those lucky enough to have travelled on her.

So finally, I've been reflecting on the person that Michael was.

As a businessman he was always well prepared with a list of points that he might want to talk about and then if a decision was required he would make it quickly.

He was astute or entrepreneurial in business, having been able to build a highly successful chain of pharmacy shops and then sell them when the market demand was greatest.

He was a great host if you were travelling with him, he was always kind and considerate, concerned about other people's welfare.

He was a great traveller and particularly enjoyed boat travel, either on his own boat or travelling with Cunard, particularly on Queen Mary 2.

He was a good friend who in all the years that I knew him, we never managed to have a crossword between us.

He was a husband, father, father-in-law, and grandpa to a family who loved him."