Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

EDWIN TYLOR BROWN (1989 – 1957) – Great Uncle of Author Robyn Watters

Written July 2019

Ted Brown fought his war from behind a desk.  Ted’s appointment as a lawyer and Captain in the Australian Imperial Force to Rabaul, German New Guinea, may seem an easy option to the many who saw bloodshed in the European theatre of war.[1]  As a lawyer though, Ted who had trained in Victoria, was required to apply German law when serving in the Australian military in Rabaul.[2]  Concurrently, Ted also navigated life in a small garrison town using his intellect, education and perspicacity to keep the peace with a population of German planters, indentured labour and indigenous peoples, pending the outcome of war in Europe.

The lead-up to Ted’s war service was his education.  Ted had won a scholarship to leading private school Wesley College where he matriculated at age 14.[3]  He then won a scholarship to Ormond College, University of Melbourne and completed with prizes, an Arts degree in German and a Law degree and was then admitted as a Barrister-at-Law.[4]  This ensured that he dovetailed into his Rabaul military appointment in June 1917.

“The original task allocated to Australia by the British government was two-fold; to occupy German possessions in New Guinea and the nearby outposts and islands and to hold and administer them for the duration of the war.”[5]  The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF) had been sent to capture and destroy the German radio tower at Bita Paka, seven kilometres inland on the island of New Pomerania, later to be renamed New Britain.[6]  The ANMEF achieved this in a day being  the 11 September 1914 and as such it was the first Australian land operation of World War 1.[7]  ANMEF forces raised the British flag in Rabaul on 13 September and commenced military occupation of German New Guinea.  It is important to note that the Germans capitulated, not surrendered in Rabaul.  German law was to still apply to Rabaul even after capitulation.

Colonel Holmes was appointed the Administrator of German New Guinea and the ANMEF took on garrison duties.  In 1915 the ANMEF was relieved of its administrative duties and the Tropical Force commenced.[8]  Ted was part of the Tropical Force arriving in July 1917 thus arriving ‘late’ to World War 1.[9]

Ted’s presence must have been a godsend particularly to Seaforth Simpson Mackenzie who later wrote Volume 10 “The Australians at Rabaul” in C.E.W. Bean’s “Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918”.[10]  Seaforth Simpson Mackenzie was a Rabaul military lawyer who spoke German and needed extra competent hands.[11]  Indeed he writes “By the middle of 1917 the legal staff had been further reinforced by the appointment of Edwin Tylor Brown, a Melbourne barrister, whose period of service was marked by useful work performed with signal ability.”[12]  One gets the impression that Ted provided not only professional but personal backup to Mackenzie and that Mackenzie recognised this by acknowledging him at the end of the chapter in this seminal Australian history of the war.  Having a lawyer of Ted’s ability with German fluency and with the ability to understand the German law as applied, undoubtedly did much to quell local Rabaul German resident undercurrents.

Was Ted’s war a desk war only?  Was he too late for real action?  The majority of Rabaul European residents were German, not British or Australian, presenting a threat in itself.[13]  On 1 February 1917, there 818 Europeans (exclusive of British troops) composed of 689 Germans, 66 Britishers and the rest made up of other nationalities.  Additionally, “Complicating matters for the new administration was the fact that the white population was vastly outnumbered by the native population.”[14]  It could be expected that the aggrieved Germans would sour relations between the indentured labour, the indigenous population and the Tropical Force.  It transpired that this didn’t happen as there was mutual benefit in keeping the commercial economy running as it had before seizing the wireless.[15]  Nevertheless, this is with the benefit of hindsight and those who were on the ground, including Ted, lived with the civilian and indigenous population numbers against them.  Undoubtedly the illustrative photo indicated that Ted took part in drills and certainly would have been involved in strategy for management of local German aggression in whatever form it took.

Ted quickly rose to the surface in Rabaul military social circles as well.  Within a year in Rabaul he was President-elect of the Officers’ Mess keeping morale up and welcoming guests and new members.[16]  Once again Ted’s seamless skills at integrating belied his humble social origins.  Tall, searingly intelligent, interesting and interested in others, he was a natural fit for this position too.

When the war ended in Europe, Ted stayed on in Rabaul, finally leaving in 1930.[17]  His war work had set him up to be appointed a Special Magistrate and his particular job was to decide who owned land expropriated from the Germans.  As part of this, he had to examine native title and issues of nationality of those asserting ownership.  Were the Germans to be sent back to whence they came even if they’d been in New Britain and surrounds for decades?  What happened to their spouses if they were indigenous women, did they have to follow their husbands back to Germany?  Were people left stateless?  Ted turned his mind to all these issues.  This was the after-math of war directly related to the Australian takeover of New Guinea which was formalised by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.[18]  Ted had to deal with the myriad flow-on.

Ted then commenced his own legal practice in Rabaul after leaving the Expropriation Board having made numerous useful contacts.[19]  As a 37 year old bachelor he married there.[20]  This wasn’t to last, as his new wife ran off with the future husband (Gregory Bateson) of Margaret Mead.[21]  Despite this setback, moving in these circles allowed Ted to socialise with the University of Cambridge set which would have stimulated him.

Once returned to Victoria and still travelling widely, Ted made a living as an author and by serving on a number of boards in New Guinea, including that of Colourtone Bricks.[22]

His experience of war needs to be contrasted with that of his brother, Alfred George Brown who went to both Gallipoli and the Western Front and sustained major injuries.[23]  Undoubtedly Ted was the more fortunate brother.

World War 1 for Ted was essentially a 13 year paid stint in an exotic location surrounded by people who had an adventuress spirit as well.  Ted’s stellar natural academic ability, education, social skills and physique parlayed into an unusual career and enviable lifestyle.  The war for Ted gave him opportunities that may not have eventuated otherwise.  He had a good war.

Figure 1: Ted sitting, third from left, in the jungles of Rabaul, c. 1917, original held by Robyn Watters, Melbourne, Victoria.

Bibliography

Australian War Memorial, ‘Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF)’, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/anmef, Accessed 24 July 2019.

High Court of Justice, Divorce Division, J77/2939/881, The National Archives at Kew.

Raffin, Greg, Australia’s Real Baptism of Fire, Heroes Known Only to a Few, Seven Hills NSW, Five Senses Education Pty Ltd, 2013.

Registrar for the Territory of New Guinea.

Service Records, B2455, National Archives of Australia.

State Library of Victoria.

Steel, John, ‘Gavman Bilong Jerman I Pinis!  Taim Bilong Ol Ostrelya Em Kamap Na: The Australian Military Administration of German New Guinea, 1914-1021.’  Sabretache Vol. LVI, No.1 — March 2015, p.23.

The Argus.

The Australasian.

High Court of Justice, Divorce Division, J77/2939/881, The National Archives at Kew.

The Rabaul Times.

University of Melbourne, ‘Calendar 1907’, https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/23458, Accessed 24 July 2019.

Wikipedia, ‘Territory of Papua’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_Papua#Annexation, Accessed 24 July 2019.

[1] Service record of Edwin Tylor Brown, National Archives of Australia, B2455.
[2] ‘Personal’, The Argus, 2 March 1916, p.6; John Steel ‘Gavman Bilong Jerman I Pinis!  Taim Bilong Ol Ostrelya Em Kamap Na: The Australian Military Administration of German New Guinea, 1914-1021.’  Sabretache Vol. LVI, No.1 — March 2015, p.23.
[3] Margot Vaughn to Robyn Watters, email 18 January 2010, original in author’s possession; The Age 6 January 1904, p.6.
[4] University of Melbourne, ‘Calendar 1907’ https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/23458, Accessed 22 July 2019; The Australasian 4 February 1905, p.46; The Argus 16 January 1916, p. 18.
[5] Greg Raffin, Australia’s Real Baptism of Fire, Heroes Known Only to a Few, Seven Hills NSW, Five Senses Education Pty Ltd, 2013, p.123.
[6] Australian War Memorial, ‘Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF)’, https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/anmef, Accessed 24 July 2019.
[7] Raffin, Australia’s Real Baptism of Fire, p.126.
[8] Australian War Memorial, ‘Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (ANMEF)’.
[9] ‘Local and General News’, Rabaul Record, 1 July 1917, p.2.
[10] Australian War Memorial, ‘Volume X – The Australians at Rabaul.  The Capture and Administration of the German Possessions in the Southern Pacific (10th edition, 1941)’, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1417044, Accessed 24 July 2019.
[11] Raffin, Australia’s Real Baptism of Fire, p.210.
[12] Australian War Memorial, ‘Volume X – The Australians at Rabaul.  The Capture and Administration of the German Possessions in the Southern Pacific (10th edition, 1941)’.
[13] ‘White Population in German New Guinea’, Rabaul Record, 1 July 1917, p.2.
[14] Raffin, Australia’s Real Baptism of Fire, p. 165.
[15] Raffin, Australia’s Real Baptism of Fire, p. 169.
[16] ‘Arrival of Brigadier General Johnston’, Rabaul Record, 1 June 1917, p.2.
[17] ‘Social and Personal’, The Rabaul Times, December 19, 1930, p.7.
[18] Wikipedia, ‘Territory of Papua’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territory_of_Papua#Annexation, Accessed 24 July 2019.
[19] ‘Notice’, The Rabaul Times, 30 December, 1927, p.8.
[20] Marriage certificate for Edwin Tylor Brown and Roslyn Ida Betty McLennan, married 24 June 1927, Registrar-General for the Territory of New Guinea, Rabaul.
[21] Final Decree, In the High Court of Justice, Divorce division, The National Archives of Kew, Supreme Court of Judicature, 1931, J77/2939/881.
[22] State Library of Victoria, Search for ‘Edwin Tylor Brown’,http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo-explore/search?query=any,contains,edwin%20tylor%20brown&tab=default_tab&group=ALL&vid=MAIN&search_scope=Everything; Robert Watters, discussion with Robyn Watters, c. 2008.
[23] Service record of Alfred George Brown, enlisted as Alfred George Payne, National Archives of Australia, B2455.