Sergeant-Trumpeter Edwin Rodbard Brown
Edwin Rodbard Brown was born on 17 October 1890 in Dalston, London, the second of six children of Madras-born superintendent (later general labourer and timber merchant's traveller Edwin John Brown and his wife Emily Florence (née Rodbard). By the time of the 1901 Census he was living at 14 King's Head Ally, Sheerness, with his parents and siblings.
Brown enlisted in the Corps of Dragoons at Sheerness on 12 December 1904 (No.5357 – later No.6508 then No. D/19818). As he was only 14 years old at the time he was given the rank of Boy. Posted to the 2nd Dragoon Guards (Queen's Bays), he served in South Africa from 9 August 1905 to 24 January 1908. On that latter date he was promoted to the rank of trumpeter, and on 25 August 1914 to sergeant-trumpeter.
At the end of 1915 he married Thirzia Boxall in Westhampnett, Chichester.
On 30 June 1916 Brown embarked for France, having been posted to the headquarters establishment of the 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment following the formation of that regiment in France from C and F Squadrons and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons Service Squadron. The headquarters, formed in England and comprising 40 officers and men, joined the new regiment in France at the beginning of July.
The 2nd North Irish Horse Regiment served as corps cavalry to X Corps until August-September 1917, when the regiment was disbanded and its men were transferred to the Royal Irish Fusiliers, an infantry regiment. Brown, however, had suffered a series of illnesses during 1917, first pleurisy in April, then 'debility', later diagnosed as neurasthenia, from July to September.
Treated at the 4th Stationary Hospital, it is not clear where he was subsequently posted, but it is possible that he was evacuated to England. On 11 August 1918 he was transferred to the Labour Corps (No.611570), although that move was subsequently cancelled. On 23 March 1919 he was demobilised and transferred to Class Z, Army Reserve.
At the time of the 1939 Register Brown was living with his wife and children at 39 Warren Road, Chertsey, Surrey, and working as a foreman cocoa roaster in the chocolate department of the firm J. Lyons & Co., Greenford. He died at Chichester, West Sussex, in 1978.
At least two of Brown's brothers – Albert Rodbard Brown and Reginald Rodbard Brown – also served in the war, both in the Royal Fusiliers. Reginald died of wounds in England on 5 August 1917.