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This WWII naval history examines the Royal Navy’s health and fitness policies, initiatives and innovations.
 ‘Fittest of the fit’ was the Royal Navy’s boast about its personnel, a claim based on a strict recruitment process. This book examines the reality behind the motto through the difficult years of the Second World War. Beginning with the medical aspects of recruitment, historian Kevin Brown examines how health and fitness were maintained at sea, including in the onerous extremes of Arctic and Tropical conditions.

 Beyond physical health, Brown also examines the importance of psychological factors and the maintenance of morale, covering everything from entertainment to tolerance of onboard pets. Inevitably, the effects of battle, injury and stress dominated naval medicine, and wartime led to rapid changes in everything from basic preparations to protective clothing.
 With revealing comparisons to other British services as well as US Navy practices, Fittest of the Fit offers a unique look at life for the Royal Navy, covering submariners and airmen as well as those in the surface fleet.

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Kevin Brown has been Trust Archivist at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, since 1989, subsequently Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Curator of the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum which he set up in 1993. He studied history at Hertford College, University of Oxford, and qualified as an archivist at University College, London. He has worked at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and also been archivist to a girls’ school and a film archive in his time. Historian, author, speaker, archivist and museum curator are all roles he has played.

His biography of Alexander Fleming was ironically the book he had never planned to write as, on his appointment to set up an archives service at St Mary’s Hospital, he had decided that he would avoid such a controversial subject. It was not meant to be and Kevin was soon being cited as an authority on Fleming and the story of penicillin, a spur to knowing even more and sharing that knowledge. Once on the roll of writing, he then turned his attention to other areas of medical history ranging from the social history of syphilis to military and naval medicine. An interest in maritime history led to his book on the emigrant experience. He has since returned to the theme of naval medicine.

Kevin Brown is also in demand to give talks on the history of medicine. He was the first historian to be, in 2001, the Andrew J. Moyer Lecturer at the United States Department of Agriculture National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research at Peoria, Illinois. He has lectured widely at home, abroad and at sea, with audiences ranging from academic conferences, university departments and schools to after dinner speaking, after lunch talks, women’s institutes and cruise ship passengers. He manages to amuse and entertain as well as inform his audiences and actually gets invited back a second or more time by some groups, perhaps because he has a wide repertoire of talks or he goes well with the menu.

From 2001-2004, Kevin was Chairman of the London Museums of Health and Medicine, leading this network of medical museums in London at a time of change in the heritage world. A Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, he is a Freeman of the City of London. He is also Honorary Secretary and a Trustee of the registered charity St Mary’s Hospital Association.

Despite all this diverse activity, Kevin still manages to find time to enjoy the good life.

Kevin can be contacted on Penicillin.Man@gmail.com

Reviews

OK I know you should not judge a book by its cover but reading the Amazon synopsis I was expecting to discover how the British sailor trained and kept himself fit in combat situations. In that I was disappointed. The book is a record of Naval doctors and the hardships they endured in keeping the Jack up to scratch and fighting fitness. Very dry with statistics in part I found myself frequently skip-reading. An interesting book but not for me. 3 stars for quality and content but lacking in interest.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. It is a really interesting read, being so well researched and clearly written. With no prior knowledge, I now feel I have a broad foundation of understanding as to what life on board ship during WW2 was like, particularly for the medical officers. Thank you for writing it!