BORN HULL 01/07/1891. ELDEST SON OF CHARLES BROWN (1845-1902) & MARY JANE HOLMES (1860-1929), AT 83, GREEK STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). EDUCATED AT HULL’S WHEELER STREET, BOARD SCHOOL. FORMER EMPLOYEE OF BUTCHER, MESSRS. GREGORY BROS. MARKET PLACE, HULL. UNMARRIED. HE WAS BROTHER TO HARRY, GEORGE AND NORA.
HE JOINED THE NAVY ON 01/09/1916. SERVED AS LEADING DECK HAND, ON THE ARMED TRAWLER, ‘TENBY CASTLE’. KILLED ACCIDENTALLY BY A SHIP EXPLOSION, IN HARBOUR, ON THE 7TH FEBRUARY 1918, AGED 27.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH, (01/02/1918. 05/02/1918 & 13/02/1918).
HIS DEATH IS ALSO RECORDED IN THE DE RUVIGNY ROLL OF HONOUR, VOLUME 3.
HIS NAME IS LISTED BOTH ON ST MATTHEWS CHURCH, BOULEVARD AND ST JOHN THE BAPTIST WW1 MEMORIAL, NEWINGTON, HULL.
On the Tenby Castle, 7 February, 1918, torpedo practice was halted because of misfiring. Then back in Lerwick harbour while testing and inspecting wires, the charges exploded, killing 4 people: BROWN, Charles S, Deck Hand, RNR, DA 12321; GREEN, Robert H, Wireman 2c, M 26431, JOHNSTON, John, Seaman, RNR (Shetland Section), L 367 and KING, George W, Act/Gunner. Only King and Brown are named in the ship’s log. All the men were apparently involved in inspecting wires and charges that had misfired earlier in the day (they were listed as torpedo gunner, 2 assistants and leading seaman in the log). The explosion extensively damaged the ship and the log says nothing of retrieving bodies from water.
