{"id":533,"date":"2017-04-29T17:46:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-29T23:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=533"},"modified":"2024-09-24T13:50:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T19:50:40","slug":"charles-edward-brown-jr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/charles-edward-brown-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Edward Brown, Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Buffalo, New York, August 2, 1894 \u2013 New York City, November 7, 1949).1<\/a><\/p>\n

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Brown’s photo from Nassau Herald for 1917 (p. 45).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Brown\u2019s father was an executive of the Central Electric Company in Chicago.2<\/a>\u00a0 After attending St. Mark\u2019s School in Massachusetts, Brown\u00a0studied at Princeton, receiving his B.A. in 1917.3<\/a>\u00a0 While at Princeton, he was a student at the privately funded Princeton Aviation School<\/a> prior to joining the Signal Corps.\u00a0 He went on to attend ground school<\/a> at Princeton\u2019s School of Military Aeronautics, from which he graduated August 25, 1917.4<\/a>\u00a0 Princeton had planes in which aviation students received some instruction.\u00a0 Brown was thus probably one of those few among the second Oxford detachment who had had some flying experience prior to R.F.C. training.<\/p>\n

Along with about half of the men in his ground school class, Brown chose or was chosen for flight training in Italy and sailed as one of the 150 men of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment\u201d to England on the Carmania<\/i>.5<\/a>\u00a0 They departed New York for Halifax on September 18, 1917, and departed Halifax as part of a convoy for the Atlantic crossing on September 21, 1917. \u00a0On arrival at Liverpool October 2, 1917, the men learned that a mix-up had occurred and that they were to remain in England rather than proceeding to Italy.<\/p>\n

The cadets (as they were now called) attended ground school (again) at the Royal Flying Corps\u2019s No. 2 School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford.\u00a0 As much of their class work repeated material already covered in the U.S., the men did not have to study hard, and they enjoyed exploring Oxford and its amenities and the surrounding countryside. The War Birds<\/em> entry for October 3, 1917, mentions that Brown joined Marvin Kent Curtis (with whom Brown was rooming at Christ Church College6<\/a>), Clarence Horne Fry, Laurence Kingsley Callahan, and John McGavock Grider on a bicycle ride to Blenheim. Another bicycle ride taken by Brown, Uel Thomas McCurry, and Hugh Douglas Stier to a village near Oxford is commemorated in a photo<\/a> kept by Grider. And Grider, in his diary, recounts how \u201cWe have a back way of getting in at night over the wall in the garden behind the college. Brownie tried to climb over the wall in the wrong place and got stuck on top of the wall. [John Hurtman] Fulford and I were coming home by way of alley & tree we heard this plaintive voice \u2018Grider\u2019 we got him down with a ladder and tucked him over the wall.\u201d7<\/a><\/p>\n

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From Foss’s diary. Austin Finley Morrison, Alexander Miguel Roberts, Eugeny Hoy Barksdale, Glenn Dickenson Wicks, and Jesse Frank Campbell were posted to Thetford along with Grider, Callahan, Brown, Curtis, and Fry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On November 3, 1917, Brown went with most of the detachment to machine gun school at Harrowby Camp, near Grantham in Lincolnshire.8<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0About two weeks later it was determined that fifty of the cadets could go to training squadrons, and on November 19, 1917, Brown and nine other cadets left for Thetford.9<\/a>\u00a0 The entry for November 17, 1917, in War Birds<\/i> includes the remark: \u00a0\u201cCal, Curtis, Brown, Fry and I [Grider] are ordered to Thetford to learn to fly at last. This is the final bust-up of the Italian Detachment.\u201d \u00a0There were at least two training squadrons at Thetford, 12 and 25; Brown, again rooming with Curtis, was presumably assigned to 12 and began his training on Maurice Farman Shorthorns.10<\/a><\/p>\n

In mid-December 1917 Brown was posted to No. 56 Training Squadron at London Colney, where he roomed with Parr Hooper; he makes several appearances in Hooper\u2019s letters and photos.11<\/a>\u00a0 The two of them spent New Year\u2019s eve together in London, and went out to dinner in London in early February with Harold Worth Vassar of the first Oxford detachment and Arthur Richmond Taber of the second.12<\/a><\/p>\n

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Brown at London Colney in a detail from a photo<\/a> taken by Hooper. For other photos Hooper took of Brown, see here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hooper reports on January 27, 1918, that Brown has \u201cjust gone solo\u201d; this was presumably in one of the Avros used for training at London Colney.12a<\/a>\u00a0 Brown was probably still stationed at London Colney in early March 1918 when he landed at Hounslow where George Augustus Vaughn was training, had motor trouble, and could not get back to his own aerodrome for some time due to bad weather.13<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown was recommended for his commission as a first lieutenant in late March 1918; Pershing\u2019s cable forwarding the recommendation to Washington is dated March 29, 1918. \u00a0As with a number of commissions, Washington took its time responding. \u00a0Pershing sent a follow up on April 30, 1918: \u201cRequest action taken on paragraph 3 A my cablegram 811.” \u00a0The telegram finally confirming Brown\u2019s and others\u2019 appointments is dated May 17, 1918.14<\/a><\/p>\n

Around the time he received his commission, Brown was posted to Marske-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire, where he again roomed with Curtis.15<\/a>\u00a0 There he trained on S.E.5s and practiced aerial combat. Curtis\u2019s first log book entry for June 11, 1918, reads: \u00a0\u201cFighting Brownie in an S.E.5. I sat in front seat [of Avro].\u201d \u00a0They then apparently switched planes; the next entry indicates Curtis was flying S.E.5 [D]397 and was \u201cfighting Capt. Fielding-Johnson and Brownie in an Avro.\u201d15a<\/a><\/p>\n

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From Curtis’s Pilot’s Flying Log Book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the biography published by Brown\u2019s prep school, Brown, after being commissioned, \u201ctrained further and awaited assignment from July 1 to Aug 7, . . .\u201d16<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 A memo dated July 30, 1918, puts Brown at the Air Service Concentration Barracks, St. Maixent.16a<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 The school biography indicates he\u00a0 “was then sent to A.S. Production Centre No. 2, Romorantin, France. \u00a0Served there as Ferry Pilot until Dec. 25.\u00a0 Arrived in the U.S.A. Feb. 5, 1919. Discharged Feb. 8, 1919.\u201d16b<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 A personnel list for November 11, 1918, in an Air Service document lists \u201cC. E. Brown\u201d (along with T. W. Blackburn and many others) as a ferry pilot.17<\/a>\u00a0 James J. Sloan, Jr., in his Wings of Honor<\/em>, lists a Charles E. Brown as assigned post-armistice to the U.S. 166th<\/sup> Bombardment Squadron, having been transferred there on December 13, 1918, from Clermont Ferrand.18<\/a><\/p>\n

After the war Brown followed his father in the electrical supply business in Chicago, eventually becoming vice president of the Okonite Company, a supplier of electrical wire and cable.19<\/a><\/p>\n

mrsmcq April 29, 2017; updated to include detail from B.E.2c photo August 1, 2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Brown\u2019s birth date and place are taken from Ancestry.com, U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918<\/i>, record for Charles Edward Brown, Jr. For his date and place of death, see \u201cCharles Edward Brown Jr.\u201d \u00a0The photo is a detail from a group photo<\/a> of Brown’s ground school class.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ancestry.com, U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925<\/i>, record for Charles Edward Brown [Sr.] (1920).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMemorials.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See The Princeton Bric-a-Brac 1919<\/i>, p. 86 (list of students of the Princeton Aviation School); \u201cGround School Graduations [for August 25, 1917].\u201d .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Brown\u2019s name\u2014like that of Leslie Benson\u2014does not appear on the rosters of men of the second Oxford detachment in the Penttinen Collection (see \u201cRoster.\u00a0.\u00a0.), and is not in the list of Oxford detachment men that Springs appended to the 1926 edition of War Birds<\/i>, even though Brown is mentioned more than once in the text. Perhaps Springs conflated Brown of the second detachment with Ben E. Brown of the first. Sloan, Wings of Honor<\/i>, does not include Brown\u2019s name among the Oxford cadets, but lists him in the \u201cCasuals Group\u201d (p. 408). Brown\u2019s membership in the the detachment is confirmed by the passenger lists for the Carmania\u2019s<\/i> September 18, 1917, voyage in the recently digitized War Department, Office of the Quartermaster General, Army Transport Service, Lists of Outgoing Passengers, 1917 – 1938<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Curtis, letter of June 10, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 Grider, diary entry for October 30, 1917, on a page with a photo of four women, one described as \u201cBrownie\u2019s girl.\u201d \u00a0The wall incident is also recounted, with slightly different details, by Grider in a letter of November 1, 1917 (Grider and Jacobs, Marse John Goes to War<\/i>, p. 69). Charles Edward Brown should not be confused with Edward Cecil Brown of No. 85 Squadron R.A.F. who is mentioned later in War Birds<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0\u201cBrown\u201d is in the (unreliable) list of those selected in early November 1917 for flying training at Stamford that Marvin Skelton provides in his edition of Vaughn\u2019s letters (War Flying in France<\/i>, p. 28). However, Foss\u2019s diary entry for November 15, 1917, is fairly conclusive evidence that Brown was not chosen for Stamford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Hooper, Somewhere in France<\/i>, letter of November 14, 1917; Foss, diary, entry for November 15, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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10<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Curtis, letter of June 10, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Somewhere in France, Chapter 5<\/a>, passim, and photos and illustrations for Chapter 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Hooper, Somewhere in France<\/i>, letters of January 8 and February 10, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12a<\/strong><\/a> Hooper, Somewhere in France<\/i>, letter of January 27, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Vaughn, War Flying in France<\/i>, pp. 53-54.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See cablegrams 811-S, 1029-S, and 1337-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Curtis, letter of May 19, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15a<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0Curtis, Pilot’s Flying Log Book<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Benson, Saint Mark\u2019s School in the War Against Germany<\/i>, p. 41.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16a<\/strong><\/a> Dwyer, \u201cMemorandum No. 8 for Flying Officers,\u201d p. 4.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16b<\/strong><\/a> Sloan, Wings of Honor<\/i>, p. 408, also places Brown at Romorantin performing \u201cferry duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See \u201cHistory of Plant 1-A, Airplane Assembly Production & Maintenance Division, Supply Section, Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces, France,\u201d p. 8. There is an R.A.F. service record for \u201cC. E. Brown\u201d that describes him as \u201cCadet (Obs),\u201d without supplying any date; it also indicates assignment to \u201c1 SofA Reading\u201d on October 31, 1918; the record is otherwise almost completely blank. I suspect that it is for a different man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Sloan, Wings of Honor<\/i>, pp. 411 and 423.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See the obituary for Brown in \u201cMemorials.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Buffalo, New York, August 2, 1894 \u2013 New York City, November 7, 1949).1 Brown\u2019s father was an executive of the Central Electric Company in Chicago.2\u00a0 After attending St. Mark\u2019s School in Massachusetts, Brown\u00a0studied at Princeton, receiving his B.A. in 1917.3\u00a0 While at Princeton, he was a student at the privately funded Princeton Aviation School prior … Continue reading “Charles Edward Brown, Jr.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543,"parent":30,"menu_order":14,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-533","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8935,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/533\/revisions\/8935"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}