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RICHARD BROWN
KENT STREET, HULL,
Hull HU9 2AU
BORN COPMANTHORPE, LEEDS 1883. SON OF GEORGE BROWN (1842-1895) AND SARAH ANN MORTIMER (1839-1920). HE HAD THREE ELDER BROTHERS AND THREE ELDER SISTERS.
MARRIED AT HULL, 1909. HIS WIFE ELLEN (CAPES) LIVED AT 3, ANN'S P;ACE, SYKE STREET, HULL, 9, LILLIES AVENUE, KENT STREET, HULL (ARMY ADDRESS) & 16, OXFORD STREET, HULL. HE WORKED AS A GENERAL LABOURER. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT 7 INCHES TALL, 39 INCH CHEST, 154 LBS WEIGHT, VERY GOOD PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT, GREY EYES, DARK BROWN HAIR, TATTOO ON RIGHT ARM, CHURCH OF ENGLAND RELIGION.
HE ENLISTED IN THE 12TH HULL PALS, ON 14/9/1914. TRAINED AT HULL, DALTON HOLME, RIPON AND SALISBURY ARMY CAMPS. SERVED IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. KILLED AT SERRE VILLAGE, 13/11/1916, AGED 33. HE HAD SERVED FOR 2 YEARS AND 61 DAYS.
HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS MOTHER, SARAH ANN. THEY HAD TWO CHILDREN, SARAH ANN BROWN, BORN IN 1913 AND SON, JAMES BROWN, WHO DIED AGED 6, ON 6 SEPT 1916.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. Private, RICHARD BROWN 12/25. Born in Copmanthorpe, York in 1883, Richard was the youngest of seven children to George and Sarah Ann Brown. His father died in 1895 leaving Sarah to raise the family alone. A General Labourer by trade, Richard lived with his wife Ellen and two children- James and Sarah Ann Jnr- at 3 Ann's Place, Sykes Street, Hull. He enlisted on 14th September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals; and life went from bad to worse. After serving in Egypt he arrived in France in March 1916 and entered the trenches at Englebelmer later that month. He looked on as his friends and comrades were whittled away by the day-to-day 'natural wastage' of the Western Front. He was given 14 days Field Punishment No.1 in August, and on 10th September tragedy struck at home when his only son died of gastro-enteritis. Richard was killed in action on 13th November 1916 during the last desperate action of the Somme campaign. He is buried in Euston Road Cemetery; he was 33 years old. The war's real victim was his young wife and remaining daughter, cast to the wind in a nation with no Welfare State.
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