Thomas Wilfred Brown (1899-1986)
Weardale man served with the Royal Garrison Artillery
Thomas Wilfred Brown was born in November in Middleton-in-Teesdale. He was one of seven children born to John Collinson Brown and Hannah Brown, five of whom were still alive in 1911. Thomas spent his childhood in Middleton where his father worked as both a quarryman and later as a labourer for a dock contractor.
Having been born in November 1899, Thomas was just fourteen when war was declared. A family member believes Thomas was not sent to the front but instead was involved with signalling on the Isle of Wight. A medical record would support this as on 22 June 1918 Thomas was admitted to hospital with Influenza. At this time he is listed as serving with the Royal Garrison Artillery Signal Training Depot as a gunner with the service number 207036. He spent 10 days in Catterick Military Hospital before being discharged. On the day Thomas was admitted to hospital, 25 out of the 30 men listed were suffering from influenza, showing the prevalence of the influenza epidemic amongst servicemen at this time.
Thomas’ father died in 1919 and in 1920 Thomas was living with his mother and younger brother, Arthur, in Middleton in Teesdale. On the 1939 Register, Thomas is working as a limestone quarryman, living in Frosterley with his wife, Lily. The register records Thomas and Lily as having one daughter, Mary. There are a further two closed records on the register, suggesting the couple may have had a further two children by 1939. (A family source tells us that the couple had 9 children.) Thomas’ mother and three of his siblings were living close by in Weardale and Thomas’ brother, John, was also working as a quarryman. Thomas died in Durham in 1986.
Civil Parish: Middleton in Teesdale
Birth date: 6-Nov-1899
Death date: 1986
Armed force/civilian: Army
Residence: Porter Row, Middleton in Teesdale (1901, 1911 Census)
Coakland Nook, Middleton in Teesdale (1920 Electoral Register
Hill End, Frosterly, Weardale (1939 Register)
Religion: Church of England
Employment: Limestone Quarryman (1939 Register)
Family: Parents: John Collinson Brown, Hannah Brown nee Palmley
Siblings: Charles A. Brown, Arthur Brown, John C. Brown, Annie Brown
Wife: Lily Brown nee Featherstone (married 1936)
Children: Mary Brown
Military service:
Royal Garrison Artillery, Signal Training Depot
Gunner
Service Number 207036
Gender: Male
Contributed by A Golding, Newcastle upon Tyne | Fiona Johnson
