Brown, Peter

Thank you to Peter Bonner for the following information, sent on 02/09/2017: Peter Brown was born on the 8th February 1878, at Scagglethorpe, in Yorkshire, close to Malton, and was baptised at Settrington church on August 25th 1878. He would spend much of his early life in this rural area and eventually became a farm worker like his father John Brown. His parents were originally from Swinton in N Yorks and many of Peter’s six siblings would remain in the farming industry. In the 1901 census Peter was recorded as being a shepherd at Lissett, near Driffield, but later he moved to the Beverley area and worked as an attendant in the East Riding (Broadgate) Asylum near Walkington. He was living in Cartwright Lane in Beverley when he got married to Edith Laura Anderson (b1877) of Hull at Beverley Minster on August 30th 1909. They had one child. In the 1911 census he is recorded as a licensed victualler and publican, running the Royal Oak on Cartwright Lane. He later moved to Hull and continued as a publican but it is not known where. He lived at Roxburgh St in Hull, off Chanterlands Avenue. Peter enlisted in January 1915 and joined the Royal Field Artillery, serving in “B” Battery of 83rd Brigade. He arrived in France on July 26th 1915. His army documents do not indicate precisely where he served in France over the next two years, but the Hull Daily Mail, of September 2nd 1916 noted that he had been wounded, probably at the Somme. Peter was killed in action on July 30th 1917 when serving in Belgium. The RFA batteries were in action near the frontline and he was probably the victim of a direct German hit. The 3rd Battle of Ypres began the next morning with an attack on Pilckem Ridge and his battery could have been involved in the preliminary bombardment, of German lines on the nearby higher ground. The Beverley Guardian of 15th September 1917 contained a letter to his wife from C. Farmer stating that, “his death was instantaneous. He was killed in the midst of his duties.” It also makes clear that Peter served as an officers’ batman (personal servant): each brigade had eight gunners fulfilling this role in addition to their military duties. “…he has been my servant for quite a long time now, and he was the best I ever had, but what is far more important, he was such a charming man himself, and I was so fond of him. All my officers were really fond of him, and we all feel his loss enormously. Peter’s body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory medals. He is also remembered on Hull’s Cenotaph in Ferensway but not on the East riding Memorial in Beverley Minster.
His death was also reported in the HDM 14/09/1917.