BROWN, Alfred
| Service Number: | 2765 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 4th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Newcastle, Hunter Region, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 22 July 1916, age not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial (Australian National Memorial - France) |
World War 1 Service
| 2 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 2765, 19th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Euripides embarkation_ship_number: A14 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 2765, 19th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Euripides, Sydney | |
| 22 Jul 1916: | Involvement Private, 2765, 4th Infantry Battalion, --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: 2765 awm_unit: 4th Australian Infantry Battalion awm_rank: Private awm_died_date: 1916-07-22 - 1916-07-27 |
Great Sydney Central Station Honour Board
No railway employment record card can be located for Alfred Brown. The 1921 Annual Report Roll of Honour and the Railway and Tramway Institute Book allocate him as working in the Permanent Way Branch and serving in the 4th Australian Infantry Battalion. Alfred BROWN, (Service Number 2765) who passed through several Battalions, but who died as a member of the 4th Battalion, described himself as a labourer on his Attestation Papers, as would not be incompatible with work in the Per-Way Branch. The NSW Government Gazette in 1914 shows men named Alfred Brown working on the Wardell Road to Glebe Island Railway, the Cox’s River to Sodwalls Duplication, and the Waratah to West Maitland Quadruplication. Whether there were several men with this name, or poor accounting for moving work sites or if the man who would be a soldier was one of them can only be guessed.
Brown had been born about 1895 at Gosford. He enlisted at Liverpool on 22 July 1915 and being unmarried gave his father living in Cooks Hill, Newcastle as his next of kin. He had also had two years’ experience in the 16th Infantry.
At first allotted to the 19th Battalion, Brown embarked HMAT ‘Euripides’ at Sydney on 2 November 1915. He reached Egypt in the new year and was taken on the strength of the 4th Battalion at Tel-el-Kebir on 14 February 1916. After a brief time in Egypt he embarked ‘Simla’ at Alexandria for passage to join the British Expeditionary Force in France through Marseilles, where he passed on 30 March.
Brown was posted missing in action between 22 and 27 July 1916.
A Court of Enquiry held nearly a year later in June 1917 ruled that he had in fact been killed in action. The contemporary documents describe his place of burial as being ‘in the vicinity of Pozières’. As might be expected from such a vague description, the site of Brown’s burial could not be located later, and he has no known grave. He in remembered at the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial.
A pension of £1/10/- per fortnight was granted to his mother, Charlotte.
(NAA B2455-1793992)
Submitted 12 May 2023 by John Oakes