BROWN, Morley Thomas

  1. Service Details
  2. Personal Details
  3. Unit and Rank Details
  4. Fate
  5. Commemoration
  6. Notes
  7. Sources

Service Details

Branch of Service
Army
Conflict
World War I (1914-1918)
Date of Enlistment
09/10/1915
Place of Enlistment
Hall ACT

Personal Details

Gender
Male
Place of Birth
Dalton (near Gunning) NSW
Address (at enlistment)
Hall ACT
School(s) Attended
Hall Public School, Brooklands Public School
Occupation
Farmer (Labourer on RecordSearch, schoolteacher according to Southwell family history)
Next of Kin
Son of Job and Hannah Brown of 'Holmwood', Hall. Cousin of Norman James Clive Southwell and Aubrey Valetta Southwell, both of whom served in the AIF in WW1.
Burial Place

France 185 Namps-au-Val British Cemetery

Unit and Rank Details

Service Number
1872
Final Rank
Private
Final Unit
35 Battalion AIF

Fate

Died of wounds at Villers-Bretonneux, France, 5 April 1918 aged 26 years.

Commemoration

AWM Roll of Honour Memorial Panel 125, Canberra ACT
Large stone tablet on outside of northern wall of St. John's Church, Reid ACT
Hall Public School Honour Roll (according to L.R. Smith)
Hall Memorial Grove, Victoria Street, Hall ACT

Notes

Morley Brown came from 'Holmwood' near Hall and enlisted at Goulburn on 9 October 1915 at 23 years of age. He served with the 35th Battalion, arriving in France in November 1916. He suffered shell shock during the Battle of Messines in Belgium in June 1917 and during October 1917 his unit was part of the battle at Passchendaele. Brown died on 5 April 1918 of wounds received in action the previous day at Villers-Bretonneux when the 35th Battalion helped defend the village. He is buried in Namps au Val Military Cemetery in Amiens, France.

Description - height 5 feet 10½ inches, weight 150 pounds, chest 34 inches, dark complexion, black hair, Methodist

Sources

First World War Nominal Roll
First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
AWM Roll of Honour Database
AWM Roll of Honour Circular
AWM Collections Record : P07730.001
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Defending Villers-Bretonneux', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
Leon R. Smith, 'Memories of Hall', Canberra, Roebuck Society, 1975 (p.50)
Lyall L. Gillespie, 'The Southwell Family: Pioneers of the Canberra District 1838-1988', Canberra, 1988 (p.101)
Rex Cross, Bygone Queanbeyan, 1980
Lyall Gillespie, 'The Southwell Family, pioneers of the Canberra district', 1988
Queanbeyan Age - 19 April 1918

Create Certificate
Memorial post and plaque, Hall Memorial Grove

Memorial post and plaque, Hall Memorial Grove

Morley Brown (centre). AWM image P07730.001.

Morley Brown (centre). AWM image P07730.001.

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