Name
Norman Algernon Brown
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
08/02/1919
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Royal Fusiliers *1
4th (City of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
BIGGLESWADE CEMETERY
Grave 3459
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Their work was well and nobly done
UK & Other Memorials
Stained Glass Window, Hitchin Boys Grammar School, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour, Hitchin, Biggleswade Memorial
Pre War
He was born in Biggleswade on the 1 February 1898 and christened 27 March 1898. His father, the late John Albert Brown, had been a solicitor's managing clerk. His mother was named Alice.
In 1901 the family were living in London Road, Biggleswade. Present were parents: John A (38) working as a solicitor’s clerk and Alice (36) and children Albert (13), Leslie Clifford (7) and Algernon (3).
In 1911 the family address was recorded Ladbrooke, London Road, Biggleswade. Both parents were present, John still a solicitor’s clerk and the 2 younger children. The census recorded that John and Alice married for 24 years with 5 children of whom 1 had died.
Norman attending Hitchin Grammar School for the period 1910-1914 then he was at Bedford Modern School. On leaving he became a clerk in a bank.
Wartime Service
Initially a rifleman in an O.T.C. of the London Rifle Brigade, he received his commission and went to France with the 4th Battalion of the London Regiment and saw considerable action during 1917. He was posted to the 4th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. He was wounded and returned to England.
He was then appointed officer in charge of a prisoner of war camp at Farnborough possibly for Second Lieutenant 2/4th Lincolns*1.
Unfortunately, he succumbed to the influenza epidemic that was raging in 1919 and died of pneumonia in Aldershot. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission slates that he died on the 28th February 1919.
He was buried in private grave 3459 in the old cemetery in Biggleswade, Beds. Several of his family are commemorated at the same location. An inscription on the headstone reads “Their work was well and nobly done".
Additional Information
His father, John, died in a motoring accident near to Girtford Bridge near Sandy, Beds. In June 1923, Alice became a widow but later remarried to become Mrs Tipple until she died in 1943..
*1 The 1918 absent voters list recorded Norman as Second Lieutenant 2/4th Lincolns and his brother Leslie Clifford as Second Lieutenant 5th Bengal Light Infantry.
Acknowledgments
Adrian Dunne, David C Baines, Jonty Wild
