June Brown wanted to be buried at sea — and even had her coffin chosen

Eastenders legend June Brown, who has died aged 95, told an interviewer in 2013 that her funeral was fully planned – and recalled having to order her coffin

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EastEnders star June Brown dies aged 95

Famous soap actress June Brown, who died at the age of 95, once said she wanted to be buried at sea.

Known and loved for playing the chain-smoking Dot Cotton on BBC soap Eastenders, the veteran actor was known for his wry sense of humor and zest for life.

Born in Suffolk in 1927, she has been through a lot. In 1932 she lost both her younger brother John to pneumonia and her older sister Marise two years later to meningitis.

Towards the end of the Second World War she served as a young woman in the Women’s Royal Naval Service and was stationed in Scotland – where perhaps her love of the sea came from.

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In an interview with The Scottish Herald in 2013, she told the interviewer that her funeral was fully planned.

Brown told the newspaper: “I want to be buried at sea. The Britannia Shipping Company drops you off around the Isle of Wight. I wear a nice white nightgown and they wrap you in a balsa coffin and weigh it to be ordered.”

She added that a clairvoyant friend told her she would live to be 100 – but she insisted she didn’t want to reach that milestone if it meant she couldn’t work.

She discovered acting while in the Navy and won a place at the Old Vic Theater School in London after the end of the war.

There she met her first husband John Garley – unfortunately he took his own life in 1957.

The following year she remarried Robert Arnold and the couple were together for 45 years until his death in 2003.

Their four-and-a-half decades together were far from quiet, as they had six children together in just seven years – although their second daughter, Chloe, was born prematurely and sadly died.

The couple also admitted to several affairs between them during their time together, but it never drove them apart.

Speaking to The Scottish Herald, Brown pointed out to the interviewer where she kept her husband’s ashes as she showed them around their home.

Although Brown played Dot Cotton in Albert Square for decades, she was modest about her position as one of Britain’s most popular soap stars.

She said: “Icon? More like an acorn.”