Lieutenant Thomas Campbell BROWN
16th (Service) Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (Pioneers) attached to the Army Service Corps (Motor Transport)

Date of birth: 10th December 1879
Date of death: 17th December 1917

Died aged 38
Buried at Sutton Cemetery Grave O 16
He was born on the 10th of December 1879 the eldest son of Thomas Brown, gentleman, of La Roque, Overton Road, Sutton in Surrey.

He was educated at the Junior King's School and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1892 to July 1897 where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. He was known at school by the nickname of "Chacks".

On leaving school he joined Harland and Wolff shipbuilding works in Belfast from August 1897 to November 1906, becoming Assistant Manager from 1902. In 1906 he became joint proprietor of the Millfield Foundry and Engine Works in Belfast. After his partner's death he became head of the business was married in London to Kathleen Josephine (nee Haven) in 1908; they lived at "Pinner", Malone Road in Belfast. They had two children, Thomas, born on the 25th of May 1909 and Maureen Elsie, born on the 20th of September 1912.

On the outbreak of war he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 16th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles(Pioneers). He spent the early part of 1915 in training with his battalion at Lurgan. On the 27th of April 1915 he and other officers built a bridge across the River Lagan. He embarked for France with his battalion from Southampton on board the ferry "Empress Queen" on the 2nd of October 1915, arriving at Le Havre just after midnight the following morning. In December 1915 the battalion was involved in the construction of a railway line at Candas and Thomas Brown was given sole charge for the construction of level crossings. He was promoted to Lieutenant which was announced in the London Gazette of the 23rd of March 1916. On the 11th of May 1916 he was appointed as engineering adviser to the Divisional Artillery.

On the 12th of August 1916 he was evacuated from the front line suffering from shell shock and diarrhoea which became dysentery. He was also found to be suffering from a septic tooth but this was removed while he was still in France. He was passed fit for light duty on the 20th of January 1917. On the 2nd of April 1917 he transferred to the Army Service Corps (Motor Transport) and was based at their Depot at Grove Park, Newton Street in London. As he was still not fully recovered he was declared as "unfit for general service" at a Medical Board on the 30th of May 1917 but was told to return to his unit. On the 2nd of August 1917 he was granted two months leave which was extended for a further two months on 1st of October.

By November 1917 he was beginning to exhibit signs of "peculiar behaviour" and was admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital at Woolwich on the 21st of November and transferred to Latchmere House, Ham Common at Kingston in Surrey two days later. On the 7th of December 1917 a Medical Board sat at Caxton Hall which concluded: - "The patient himself is incoherent and incapable of giving rational answers to questions. Permanently unfit for military service of any kind."

He died at Latchmere House ten days later. A telegram which was sent from the hospital to the War Office read: -

"Regret to report death Lieut. T.C. Brown ASC at 5am Wednesday 19 Dec at Latchmere Hospital, Ham Common, Surrey. Relatives not present. Exhaustion following paralysis of insane."
 

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