Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Excerpt from Blood Sweat and Fears: Medical Practitioners and Medical Students of South Australian who Served in World War 1. Courtesy of the Authors

Edgar Jabez Brown was born on the 5th May 1875 at Mintaro, South Australia. The thirteenth of fifteen children, he was born to early pioneer settlers James Brown and his wife Sophia Jane, nee Torr. Brown was educated at Stanley Grammar School, Watervale, Prince Alfred and Way Colleges in Adelaide and at the Melbourne University. He enrolled in medicine in 1897, graduating in 1902. He travelled to England in 1907 where he completed his Diploma of Public Health at Cambridge University. Brown worked at the Great Northern Hospital, Moorfields Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, and Southampton Free Eye Hospital and completed extensive training in massage. He also studied in Vienna. He commenced practice as an Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat surgeon in Adelaide on his return to Australia in 1910. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Adelaide Hospital Board, and an Official Visitor to the Parkside Mental Hospital, and for a short time Temporary Deputy Inspector General of Hospitals. He married a young widow, Annie Louise Anderson in 1915. She was born at Strathalbyn in 1877, daughter of Sir John Gordon, politician and judge. She is better known as Louise Brown the novelist (1877-1955). They lived at 212 Brougham Place, North Adelaide.

Brown was commissioned in the AAMC as a major in October 1915. He was 40 years old, an ophthalmologist and married; his postal address was 3 North Terrace, Adelaide.  He was 5ft 10ins, 12 stone, with near normal vision. He sailed from Adelaide for the Middle East later in the month with reinforcements for 1AGH. During the months he spent in Cairo he consulted both at Heliopolis and Luna Park. Brown went to France with the hospital in March 1916. During the winter he developed severe sinusitis and was evacuated to 3LGH in December 1916. He was discharged in January 1917 and sent to 3 AGH which was at that time still in Brighton, Sussex. He was transferred to 3 AAH in March, as 3 AGH was now packing up for its move to Abbeville in the Somme area of France. Brown re-joined 1 AGH at Rouen in May 1917, and served until December when a medical board recommended his return to Australia. He was however allowed to remain in England, and was posted to 1 AAH in December 1917. He was promoted temporary lieutenant colonel in November 1918 and in January 1919 attached to AIF HQ in London.  He returned to Australia in May 1919 to the 4MD with his appointment terminated on the 18th August 1919 due to the “Cessation of Hostilities” He was issued with the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal

Brown resumed his practice at 172 North Terrace Adelaide. His appointments included the following:- Senior Surgeon and Consulting Surgeon, Nose and Throat Department, Adelaide Children’s Hospital, Assistant Surgeon, Nose and Throat Department, Adelaide Hospital. Occasionally he joined his peers in a game of golf at Mount Osmond and Kooyonga Golf Clubs. He bred bulldogs in his spare time, some winning awards. He also participated as a ‘ring steward’ for the South Australian Bulldog Club and there was The Dr Edgar Brown Trophy. Brown travelled widely in Europe and the Far East. He and his wife were prominent members of the social scene in Adelaide. Edgar Jabez Brown died on the 10th November in 1964 and was buried alongside his wife, who predeceased him, at the North Road Cemetery, Nailsworth, South Australia. Dr William Jethro Brown (1868-1930), Professor of Law at Adelaide University from 1906-16 was his older brother.