Thomas Gilbert (Bert) BROWN

BROWN, Thomas Gilbert

Service Number: 1695
Enlisted: 18 July 1915
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 10th Light Horse Regiment
Born: Port Augusta, South Australia, 15 July 1895
Home Town: Albany, Albany, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Butcher
Died: Fremantle, Western Australia, 21 May 1960, aged 64 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Fremantle Cemetery, Western Australia
Memorials: Albany & Districts Roll of Honour
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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Bert was the second of six children of John Reginald (aka Harry Basil) Brown (b1873 in Yorkshire, England) and Edith Ann Welfare (b1874 in Bridgewater, South Australia). John (a Butcher) and Edith married in 1892 in Port Augusta, South Australia. John was a Farrier when he arrived in Adelaide in September 1890 on board the Port Victor. The couple lived in South Australia and Mildura, Victoria before moving to Western Australia in 1906. The family was living in Albany WA - where John was a Butcher - when Edith died in 1914. John enlisted in the AIF on two occasions, serving as a Private/Trooper and Discharging at his own request after a couple of months - on one occassion using Harry Basil (also his son's name). By 1917 John was living in Fremantle WA where he worked as a Butcher.

Bert was working as a Butcher in Albany WA in July 1917 when he enlisted in the AIF. He served as a Private/Trooper (Service No:1695) with 10th Light Horse Regiment in Egypt, where he was WiA on 9 January 1917 at Raffa - GSW to back and chest. In October 1916, Bert's Uncle Charles Stamp (National Archives Australia) wrote from Adelaide, SA 'The last letter we had received from him was in February last and have had no tidings of him since. He has no mother and only one Aunt which makes her feel very anxious as to his whereabouts wether he is wounded dead or alive'.

Returning to Fremantle, WA Bert married Ethel (Florence) Edith Wright (b1896 in Goulburn, NSW) in 1919. Bert and Florence settled in Fremantle where Bert was a Butcher. He died in 1960 and Florence in 1988.

 

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