Arthur Roy Brown, (23 December 1893 – 9 March 1944) was a Canadian
flying ace
A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...
of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, credited with
ten aerial victories.
The
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
officially credited Brown with shooting down
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of ...
, the "Red Baron", although it is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed by a machine gunner firing from the ground.
[Franks & Bennett (1997)]
Early years
Brown was born to upper-middle-class parents in
Carleton Place
Carleton Place is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in Lanark County, about west of downtown Ottawa. It is located at the crossroads of Highway 15 and Highway 7, halfway between the towns of Perth, Almonte, Smiths Falls, and the nation's cap ...
, west of
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
. His family home still exists, located at 38 Mill Street, just down from the Town Hall. Another source, the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum, refers to the family home as being on Judson Street, and says that this was his birthplace. That house also still exists. He was the middle of five children. He had two older sisters, Margaret and Bessie, and two younger brothers, Horace and Howard. His father had started business as a miller, but branched out into electrical generation when the first power grids were being set up around the start of the 20th century. His father eventually owned a power company in the town.
Though Brown did well in high school, he transferred to a business school to study accounting to eventually take over the family business. Following this course, he wanted to continue to university to study business administration, but he needed to have graduated from high school which he had not done. He took a course at the
Victoria High School in Edmonton from 1913 to 1915 to get his high-school diploma. There he befriended
Wilfrid R. "Wop" May.
Flight training
Brown enlisted in 1914 as an Officer Cadet at the Army Officers' Training. As a prerequisite to joining the
Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...
(RNAS), Brown received flight training at the
Wright Flying School
The Wright Flying School, also known as the Wright School of Aviation, was operated by the Wright Company from 1910 to 1916 and trained 119 individuals to fly Wright airplanes.
History
Orville Wright began training students on March 19, 1910 in M ...
near Dayton, Ohio, from September to November 1914. He was awarded
Aero Club of America
The Aero Club of America was a social club formed in 1905 by Charles Jasper Glidden and Augustus Post, among others, to promote aviation in America. It was the parent organization of numerous state chapters, the first being the Aero Club of New E ...
Pilot's Certificate No. 361 on 13 November,
and was confirmed as a flight sub-lieutenant in the RNAS on the 15th.
Wartime service
Brown set sail for England on 22 November 1914 and underwent further training at
Chingford
Chingford is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The town is approximately north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walthamstow to the ...
. On 2 May 1916, Brown crashed his
Avro 504
The Avro 504 was a First World War biplane aircraft made by the Avro aircraft company and under licence by others. Production during the war totalled 8,970 and continued for almost 20 years, making it the most-produced aircraft of any kind tha ...
emerging apparently unscathed, though next morning he experienced severe back pain as he had broken a
vertebra
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...
. He spent two months in hospital and in September 1916 was posted to
Eastchurch
Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers".
Aviation history
Eastchu ...
Gunnery School. In January 1917, he was sent to
Cranwell
Cranwell is a village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is part of the civil parish of Cranwell and Byard's Leap and is situated approximately north-west from Sleaford and south-east from the city and county town o ...
to complete advanced training.
In March 1917, Brown was posted to
No. 9 Naval Squadron, flying coastal patrols off the Belgian coast in
Sopwith Pup
The Sopwith Pup is a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It entered service with the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916. With pleasant flying characteristi ...
s. In April, "B" Flight, which included Brown, was attached to the Army's
Royal Flying Corps
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colors =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries =
, decorations ...
to assist during the
Battle of Arras. Brown fell ill at this time and missed "
Bloody April
Bloody April was the (largely successful) British air support operation during the Battle of Arras in April 1917, during which particularly heavy casualties were suffered by the Royal Flying Corps at the hands of the German ''Luftstreitkräfte ...
", a period when British casualties were very high.
In June 1917, Brown was posted to
No. 11 Naval Squadron, and in July he was briefly posted to No. 4 Naval Squadron before returning to No. 11 Naval Squadron later that month. On 17 July, he achieved his first "kill", an
Albatros D.III
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service ('' Luftstreitkräfte'') during World War I. A modified licence model was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service ( ''Luftfahrtruppen''). ...
, while flying a Pup, and gathered another three unconfirmed kills.
No. 11 was disbanded in mid-August 1917, and Brown returned to No. 9, equipped with the
Sopwith Camel
The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the b ...
. He was promoted to flight lieutenant on 1 October, and on 6 October, Brown was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries.
*Distinguished Service Cross (Australia)
The Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) is a military decoration awarded to ...
(DSC). His citation read:
Soon after, Brown was made a
flight commander, a role in which he excelled. No. 9 was posted to the
Somme area in early 1918, and was forced to retreat during the
German spring offensive between 20 and 29 March. The tempo of operations increased, with the entire squadron typically flying two missions a day. Colonel
Raymond Collishaw
Raymond Collishaw, (22 November 1893 – 28 September 1976) was a distinguished Canadian fighter pilot, squadron leader, and commanding officer who served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and later the Royal Air Force. He was the highest ...
noted on an April visit that Brown looked exhausted: he had lost , his hair was prematurely turning grey, and his eyes were bloodshot and sunken. Also eating contaminated rabbit had left him severely sickened with
gastritis
Gastritis is inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It may occur as a short episode or may be of a long duration. There may be no symptoms but, when symptoms are present, the most common is upper abdominal pain (see dyspepsia). Other possi ...
. Against Collishaw's suggestions, Brown refused to quit flying, and shot down another two aircraft on 11 and 12 April.
On 1 April 1918, the RFC and RNAS were merged into the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
. Brown's No. 9 Squadron RNAS became No. 209 Squadron RAF.
Fighting the Red Baron
![209 RAF emblem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/209_RAF_emblem.gif)
On the morning of 21 April 1918, No. 209 was on patrol when they became engaged in combat with fighters of ''
Jagdstaffel 11
Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 11 ("No 11 Fighter Squadron"; commonly abbreviated to Jasta 11) was founded on 28 September 1916 from elements of 4 Armee's “Kampfeinsitzer” or KEKs) 1, 2 and 3 and mobilized on 11 October as part of the Germ ...
'', led by
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (; 2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of ...
, the "Red Baron". A newcomer to No. 209, Brown's school friend, Lieutenant
Wilfrid "Wop" May, had been instructed to stay clear of any fight and watch. May noticed an enemy pilot doing the same thing. That pilot was the Red Baron's cousin, Lt.
Wolfram von Richthofen
Wolfram Karl Ludwig Moritz Hermann Freiherr von Richthofen (10 October 1895 – 12 July 1945) was a German World War I flying ace who rose to the rank of ''Generalfeldmarschall'' in the Luftwaffe during World War II.
Born in 1895 into a fa ...
, who had been given the same instructions as May. May attacked Wolfram and soon found himself in the main fight, firing at several fleeting targets until his guns jammed. May dived out of the fight, and Manfred von Richthofen gave chase down to ground level. Brown saw May in trouble and dived steeply in an attempt to rescue his friend. His attack was necessarily of fairly short duration, as he was obliged to climb steeply to avoid crashing into the ground, losing sight for the moment of both Richthofen and May.
What happened next remains controversial to this day, but it seems highly probable that Richthofen turned to avoid Brown's attack, and then, instead of climbing out of reach of ground fire and prudently heading for home, remained at low altitude and resumed his pursuit of May, who was still zig-zagging, as he had not noticed that Richthofen had been momentarily distracted. It would have been physically impossible for Richthofen to have done this had he already received the wound from which he died.
May and Richthofen's route now took them at low level over the heavily defended Allied front line. Franks and Bennett
have suggested that Richthofen had become lost, as the winds that day were blowing the "wrong way", towards the west, and the fight had drifted over to the Allied side. The front was also in a highly fluid state at the time, in contrast to the more common static trench lines earlier in the Great War, and landmarks can be confusing in very low level flight.
Australian machine gunners on the ground fired at Richthofen, who eventually crashed near the Australian trenches. Brown's initial combat report was that the fight with Richthofen was "indecisive" – this was altered by his commanding officer to "decisive".
Modern historical consensus suggests that Australian anti-aircraft gunner Sergeant
Cedric Popkin is the person most likely to have been responsible for the shot that actually downed the Baron.
Brown was officially credited with the kill by the RAF, shortly after receiving a Bar to his DSC, at least partly in recognition of this feat. The citation read:
Later years
Nine days after the combat with von Richthofen, Brown was admitted to hospital with influenza and nervous exhaustion. In June, he was posted to No. 2 School of Air Fighting at
Marske Aerodrome
Marske Aerodrome was a First World War-era airfield used by the Royal Flying Corps, and later by the Royal Air Force, between 1917 and 1920. The aerodrome was just to the west of the village of Marske-by-the-Sea in Yorkshire (North Yorkshire), ...
, as an instructor. He was involved in a bad air crash on 15 July, and spent five months in hospital.
Brown left the
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
in 1919 and returned to Canada where he took up work as an accountant at a small town grocery store and later moved to Toronto to work at Imperial Varnish and Color Company until he retired in 1934. He also founded a small airline in 1928, General Airways Limited in
Amos, Quebec
Amos is a town in northwestern Quebec, Canada, on the Harricana River. It is the seat of Abitibi Regional County Municipality.
Amos is the main town on the Harricana River, and the smallest of the three primary towns — after Rouyn-Noranda and ...
and in same year married Edythe Moneypenny. Brown worked for a while as editor of ''Canadian Aviation''. When the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
broke out, he attempted to enlist in the
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...
, but was refused. He instead entered politics,
losing an election for the
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
legislature in 1943. The Browns moved to Stouffville in 1939 and in 1943 purchased a dairy farm at Bethesda Road and Warden Avenue near
Stouffville, Ontario (now part of the property of Rolling Hills Golf Club). Brown was inducted into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in 2015.
Brown died on 9 March 1944, of a heart attack, in
Stouffville, Ontario shortly after posing for a photograph with a current Canadian flying ace,
George Beurling
George Frederick "Buzz" Beurling, (6 December 1921 – 20 May 1948) was the most successful Canadian fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War.
Beurling was recognised as "Canada's most famous hero of the Second World War", as "The F ...
. He was 50 years old. He is buried, with his wife, Edythe, in the
Toronto Necropolis
Toronto Necropolis is a non-denominational cemetery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the west side of the Don River valley, to the north of Riverdale Farm in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood.
The cemetery was opened during the 1850s to ...
.
Memorials, tributes and relics
Some time in 1918, Brown acquired the seat of the Fokker Dr., triplane in which Richthofen made his final flight; in 1920 he donated his souvenir to the
Royal Canadian Military Institute
The Royal Canadian Military Institute (RCMI) is a private members’ organization located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as the Canadian Military Institute on January 14, 1890. General Sir William Dillon Otter set the founding princ ...
.
A memorial plaque titled "Captain A. Roy Brown, D.S.C. 1893–1944", was erected at the Carleton Place Public Library by the Ontario Heritage Foundation, in memory of Brown.
In November 2012, the town of Carleton Place further paid tribute to Brown with a prominent mural on the town's main street. A museum dedicated to Brown was also opened in Carleton Place.
In 2015, Brown was posthumously inducted into
Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame
Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, based in The Hangar Flight Museum in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, commemorates and honours those whose accomplishments in aviation contributed so much to Canada's development as a nation. Founded in 1973, the Hall of ...
.
In 2016, a new headstone was erected for Brown in the Toronto Necropolis. The stone was unveiled by his nieces, Carol Nicholson and Nadine Carter.
On 28 November 2020, a bronze statue depicting Arthur Roy Brown was unveiled in Carleton Place. A most beloved son of the town, the statue sits in a park facing the Mississippi Lake close to the Roy Brown Museum and the mural of the famous dogfight.
Brown in film and fiction
Although Roy Brown has left a much smaller mark in popular culture than Manfred von Richthofen's, his legacy is remembered sporadically.
Brown was a minor character in Karl Ritter's 1938 film, ''Pour Le Merite''. He is shown as a captured aviator who shares a meal with the German squadron that shot him down. He then is allowed to escape.
Brown was portrayed by
Don Stroud
Donald Lee Stroud (born September 1, 1943) is an American actor, musician, and surfer. Stroud has appeared in over 100 films and 200 television shows.
Early years
Stroud was the son of vaudeville actor Clarence Stroud (of "The Stroud Twins" team ...
in the 1971 film ''
Von Richthofen and Brown
''Von Richthofen and Brown'', alternatively titled ''The Red Baron'', is a 1971 war film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as Manfred von Richthofen and Roy Brown. Although names of real people are used and em ...
''. He is depicted as a cynical, cocky, ruthless rebel without a cause who doesn't believe in honour. He bullies his way to leadership and has his squadron hunt in packs with a plane as bait. This movies depicts Brown being responsible for Richthofen's death.
In the 2008 film
''The Red Baron'', he was played by
Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes (), known as Joseph Fiennes, is an English actor of film, stage, and television. Journalist Zoe Williams observed that "he seemed to be the go-to actor for English cultural history". Fiennes is particul ...
. Brown is depicted as being shot down by Richthofen in 1916 and subsequently escaping from a German
Prisoner of War
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
camp. Later, Brown and Richthofen are forced to ditch their aircraft in
no man's land
No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dump ...
, where they share a friendly drink.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Roy
1893 births
1944 deaths
Canadian World War I flying aces
People from Carleton Place
Royal Naval Air Service aviators
Royal Air Force personnel of World War I
Royal Air Force officers
Wright brothers
Royal Navy officers of World War I
Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts alumni
Manfred von Richthofen
Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame inductees
Burials at Toronto Necropolis
Canadian military personnel from Ontario