Edwin Perceival Wildman Brown
The soldier:
Edwin Perceival Wildman Brown joined the army in September 1914 at the age of 17. He was originally enlisted as a ‘Private’ assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment (the home based recruit training battalion during the war) but had his service deferred whilst he began his degree at Durham University.
In June 1915 he was commissioned as an officer in the 1st Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment from Durham University’s Officer Training Corps (OTC).
However, he broke his leg 3 days after receiving his commission and could not join his new battalion until October 1915.
He went to France with his comrades in July 1916. It was here whilst serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st battalion of the Norfolk Regiment that he was ‘killed in action’ on Monday the 4th September 1916 during the battle of Guillemont. He was just 19 years old.
Edwin Perceival Wildman Brown is buried in Grave XXVI B. 4 of the Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueville, Somme, France.
His name is inscribed on both of Snettisham’s war memorials and its ‘Roll of Honour’.
It appears alongside that of his brother William John Henry Brown a Captain in the Norfolk Regiment who by tragic coincidence also fell on exactly the same day (4th September 1916) and in exactly the same battle as Edwin.
This picture of Edwin has been gratefully lifted from the ‘Imperial War Museum’ archive where there is much information on both brothers and correspondence with their mother Fanny Sophia Brown. A picture of Edwin’s brother William can be found on his story page.
The man:
Edwin Perceival Wildman Brown was born in 1897 in Tynemouth, Northumberland. His parents were William Henry and Fanny Sophia Brown (nee Maplestone) who had married in Loddon, Norfolk in the spring of 1891 (his father being born in Wheatacre, Norfolk). Edwin’s father William was a surgeon ‘registered medical practitioner’ and a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
By the 1901 census the family were living at an address in North Shields. Edwin was 4 years old and had two older brothers; William John Henry (bn. c. 1892) and Thomas Frank Maplestone (bn. c. 1893) and a younger brother Charles Kenneth Gordon (bn. c. 1899).
The family were quite well off with two ‘live in’ domestic servants. Fanny Sophia’s father, John Maplestone an 81 year old widowed ‘retired farmer’ was also living with them.
By the 1911 census, the family was living at 7, Northumberland square, North Shields. William, Edwin’s father, was now 50 and Fanny, his mother 56. William John Henry was now 19 and a ‘medical student’, Thomas Frank was 18 and a ‘dentist’s apprentice’, Edwin and Charles were 14 and 12 and still at school.
We know from a letter from Edwin’s mother to the Imperial War Museum that both he and William John Henry received good educations at Tynemouth College and both went on to study at Durham University.
William, Edwin’s father died on the 23rd August 1912, in Tynemouth leaving probate of £678 25S and 11D to his wife, Fanny Sophia Brown.
Shortly afterwards William John Henry gave up his medical studies and went to work on an estate near Snettisham, Norfolk. We know this from his mothers letter to the IWM and associated research, UK Voters Registers from 1912 and 1913 giving a Station Road, Snettisham address for him and his army enlistment documents from 1914 recording ‘3 Syndfield Terrace, Snettisham, Norfolk’ as his home address.
It is believed this is the connection how both William John and Edwin Brown came to appear on Snettisham’s ‘Roll of Honour’ and its memorials.
After William’s death, Edwin’s mother moved firstly to 11 Colytier Road, Sydenham and then on to ‘The Chase’ Abridge Road, Chigwell, Essex.
Edwin and William’s names also appear on the memorial in St. Bartholomew’s Church, Sydenham and their names and date of death are recorded on a grave in the churchyard of St. Mary the Less, Chigwell, Essex.
Edwin and William’s brother Thomas Frank Maplestone Brown also served his country during the war in the YMCA. The role of the YMCA was somewhat different to that of today, with it being closely aligned to the military. Members offering comfort, aid and support to soldiers going to/from and at the front and our wounded around military field hospitals.
Thomas died aged just 26 on the 17th November 1919. Death records and his probate (of £243 15s) linking him to Fanny Sophia Brown (widow) and the ‘The Chase’ Chigwell, family address.
Edwin’s other brother, Charles Kenneth Gordon Brown was a Lieutenant in the RAF, surviving the war, a request for his medals linking him with Fanny Sophia and the Chigwell address.
