Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Brown was born around January 1887, in the town of Lipson, South Australia. His father, William Brown, lived in Tumby Bay, West Coast, South Australia. Brown was raised a Methodist. No other family apart from his father was listed, which either tells us that his father would have been the main point of information for Brown’s family. He was born a naturally born British subject, meaning he was born an within the Commonwealth. Brown worked as a farmer prior to his enlistment and was also involved in an accident that left him injured in a casualty hospital with a broken upper arm in 1914.

Brown was reported to have fallen over some sort of hatch opening while transporting his stock to Western Australia aboard the steamer Wandilla, from about 14 feet (around 4.2 meters) and broke his right upper arm, somewhere around the 23rd of March 1914. According to the information cited upon Brown’s overseas attestation papers, he spent 6 years with the Tumby Bay Rifle Club prior to enlisting in the AIF.

Brown enlisted on the 4th of March 1915, clearing the medical and physical examination. After his completion of basic training, he was assigned to base depot at the Oaklands Camp from his D.O.E (Date of Enlistment), up until the 31st of March 1915 with the 10th Infantry Battalion (6th Reinforcements). Brown then proceeded to join the M.E.F at Camp Mena, based in Alexandria, Egypt on the 11th of September 1915 after he was sent abroad, embarking from Adelaide abord the A30 Borda on the 23rd of June 1915.

Brown spent about a week, most likely for extra training prior to being deployed upon the Gallipoli Peninsula. He joined his unit on the peninsula on the 17th of September 1915, being Taken on Strength after landing with the 2nd Division, as according to the 10th Battalion unit diary they were withdrawn to reserve trench positions around mid-November, following the support received with the landing of the 2nd Division upon the peninsula in September. Although Brown only spent around a month in combat, he was most likely involved within the reserve and supply trenches, after spending a short amount of time at the front line, with his Battalion withdrawing to a support role. With Brown already spending some pre-deployment time within a supply depot role, the work within reserve trenches would have been no stranger to him, save for the fact he would be under enemy fire at times.

Brown was sent down to a Field Hospital along the beach at ANZAC Cove on the 18th of November 1915, and later hospitalised in a military hospital some 1162 kilometres from Gallipoli, in Malta on the 30th of November 1915 with severe fits. After spending roughly around 3 weeks in a hospital situated on Malta, Brown arrived in England and was admitted to a war hospital in Epsom, with an official diagnosis of Hystero-Epilepsy. It is quite possible that Brown was admitted to the Horton Hospital, otherwise known as the Horton Asylum, a mental hospital for patients with neurological and nervous problems (Brown’s Hystero-Epilepsy, hence providing evidence that he most probably was admitted to Horton) and mental health support.

After spending around 4 months undergoing medical treatment, Brown left England and boarded the HMAT Ascanius, bound for Australia, on the 17th of March 1916, disembarking in Adelaide on the 30th of April. 

With 285 days of service with the AIF, and a recorded 188 days abroad, James Alexander Brown was declared M.U and discharged from the A.I.F in Adelaide, at the Keswick Barracks (HQ for South Australia) on the 22nd of June 1916. The amount of perseverance, and mental strength it would take to push through such an ailment, and the after effects, not many people would have done the same.