George Stuart Brown on the summit of Ben Lui, 12^th June 1942

George Stuart Brown was born on 19^th July 1879 at two o’clock in the morning, at Millburn Cottage, Parish of Bathgate. The informant at Bathgate on the 26^th was the child’s father, Peter Stuart Brown.

In 1881, George was a ward of governess Margaret Chapman and living with her in Dubbyhill Street, Markinch, Fife. Unaccountably, George’s place of birth was entered as Irvine, Ayrshire. Margaret was 28, unmarried, and a native of Bathgate. Also residing with her were her ‘pupils’, Henry S. Brown, aged 10; Mungo, 9; Charles, 7; Elisabeth, 5, and a ‘general servant (domestic)’ named Helen Campbell, aged 17, whose birthplace was given as Edinburgh. The most likely explanation for Margaret Chapman is that she was a cousin of the children’s mother, Elizabeth Chapman, specifically that she was a daughter of Robert Chapman, a brother of Elizabeth’s father, Mungo Chapman.

The prize lists held in the archives of The High School of Glasgow disclose that George S. Brown, of Bothwell Park, Bothwell, was awarded a prize for Latin (Form III) in session 1895/6.

George, then residing in the family home at Bothwell Park, Bothwell, was nominated as a trustee and executor in his father’s 1907 Trust Deed and Settlement, in which he was also named as a beneficiary.

The 1911 census appears to indicate that George was born in Ireland, as a ‘ditto’ appears under ‘Ireland’, which has already been indicated as his sister Elizabeth’s birthplace; the ‘ditto’ is quite certainly an error and was no doubt intended to refer to Bathgate.

During the Great War, George received a Commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Territorial Force, 6^th (Renfrewshire) Battalion, Princess Louise’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, bearing the signature of his royal namesake ‘George R. I.’ (George V) and the Royal Seal:

George by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India, &c. To Our Trusty and well beloved George Stuart Brown Greeting: We reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Loyalty, Courage, and good Conduct, do by these Presents Constitute and Appoint you to be an Officer in Our Territorial Force from the Twenty-seventh day of October 1915. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge your Duty as such in the Rank of 2nd Lieutenant or in such higher Rank as We may from time to time hereafter be pleased to promote or appoint you to, of which a notification will be made in the London Gazette, and you are at all times to exercise and well discipline in Arms both the inferior Officers and Men serving under you and use your best endeavours to keep them in good Order and Discipline. And We do hereby Command them to Obey you as their superior Officer and you to observe and follow such Orders and Directions as from time to time you shall receive from Us or any your superior Officer, according to the Rules and Discipline of War, in pursuance of the Trust hereby reposed in you. Given at Our Court at Saint James’s the Twenty-third day of October 1915 in the Sixth Year of Our Reign. By His Majesty’s Command.

On the evidence of his father’s obituary in the Hamilton Advertiser, 12^th August 1916, George spent some months in the trenches before being invalided back to Great Britain.

The Great War notwithstanding, George accepted the office of trustee and executor to his late father’s estate upon the latter’s death in 1916, alongside his widowed mother and brothers, Henry and Charles. He was then resident in the family home at Auchengrange, Lochwinnoch.

He was again designated as a veneer factory manager on his daughter Elizabeth Frances’s birth certificate in 1930.

George and Janet Stuart Brown

George Stuart Brown was designated as a company director on his daughter Frances’s marriage certificate in 1956 and again on his wife’s death certificate the following year. He died on 22^nd March 1960 at 4^h 22^m pm, at Dunrowan, Langbank. He was 80 years of age. He was designated as a company director (retired). The cause of death was ‘general arteriosclerosis’ from which he had been suffering for five years, and cirrhosis of the liver, from which he had been suffering for six months. The death was registered at Bishopton by Jean Wilkie, a friend.

Confirmation

Brothers and Sisters

George Stuart Brown was the fifth of seven children and fourth of five brothers. The three elder brothers were Henry, born 1871; Mungo, born 1872; and Charles, born 1874. His younger brother was Huntly, born 1889. There were also two sisters, Elizabeth (Betty), born 1876; and Helen Eva (Eva), born 1885.