Mr D. F. Brown, of Totara, who is leaving on Tuesday, 19th instant, with the 9th Reinforcements, has disposed of his farm through the North Otago farmers' Co-operative Association. The purchaser is understood to be Mr S. Taylor, of Totara. -North Otago Times, 14/10/1915.
RECOMMENDED FOR D.C.M.
Hidden behind the meagre announcements of those "killed in action" are many deeds that remain untold, for in the severe losses sustained often very few remain to chronicle them. A letter received by the last mail from Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown, written two days before his death, describes the offensive on the Somme, and how a few days before the letter was written, he was one of a party who went into action 200 strong, and of whom only 35 returned. -North Otago Times, 11/12/1916.
D. F. BROWN, V.C.
A NEW ZEALAND HERO
KILLER OF MACHINE GUN CREWS.
(Received June 9, 3.30 p.m.) LONDON, 8th June. Thirty Victoria Crosses have been gazetted, including awards to six Australians and one New Zealander, Private Donald Forrester Brown, of the infantry. His company suffered most heavy casualties among both officers and men by machine-gun fire. Private Brown, with a comrade, reached within thirty yards of the enemy guns, killed four of a gun crew, and captured the gun. The company was again similarly held up, and Brown and a comrade, with great gallantry, rushed a gun, and killed the crew.
The company was then heavily shelled, but Brown's contempt for danger and coolness kept up the men's spirits. Subsequently, as sergeant, Brown made a single-handed attack on a machine gun, killed the crew, and captured the gun. Later, whilst sniping the retreating enemy, this gallant soldier was killed. -Evening Post, 9/6/1917.
SERGEANT BROWN, V.C.
A HEROIC NEW ZEALANDER.
(BY TELEGRAPH. — PRESS ASSOCIATION.) OAMARU, 10th June.
Sergt. Donald Forrester Brown, awarded the Victoria Cross, was the third son of Mr. Robert Brown, of the Polytechnic, Oamaru. He was 26 years of age, and belonged to the North Otago Company, Second Battalion, 9th Reinforcements. He went to Egypt, leaving New Zealand in January, 1916. After a short stay in Egypt he was sent, to France, arriving at Marseilles in May, 1916 He went straight up to Armentieres, and fell in the Somme offensive during the fierce fighting outside Eaucourt l'Abbaye on 1st October. At the time of enlistment, Sergt Brown was engaged in farming. He sold his farm and joined the colours. Describing the valorous deeds which earned distinction, Captain Freeman, O.C. of the company, wrote: "Owing to the shortage of officers during the operations at Armentieres, Brown virtually had command of a platoon. He was a steady and reliable man under fire in positions of danger, and by his example kept his men steady. He was always in his element in No Man's Land, and could always be relied upon to obtain any information. He was instrumental in effecting the capture of a machine-gun."
After Sergt. Brown's death, Lieut.Colonel G. S. Smith wrote to Mr. Brown, senior: "He died on the Somme. His great work was on 15th September and again on 1st October. During our most successful attacks on German trenches he took a German machine-gun after killing five men. If he had lived I had hoped to recommend him at least for the .D.C.M., and he might have got the V.C. He was an excellent non-com., and much liked by his men. I cannot speak too highly of him. He is a great loss to the battalion." He was one of a party who went into action two hundred strong, and of whom only thirty-five returned.
Sergt. Brown is another of the 530 representatives of Waitaki High School known to be in the fighting line to win distinction. He was at the school in 1908, was a splendid footballer, and a good sport, and highly respected. Last evening a special service in honour of the late sergeant was held at the Waitaki High School. In an address, Mr. F. Milner, the rector, paid a tribute to Sergt. Brown's heroism, and mentioned that eleven Waitakians had won the Military Cross, and sixteen had been mentioned in despatches. At the Columbia Presbyterian Church this morning; where Sergt. Brown attended, special reference was made to the honour awarded the fallen soldier. -Evening Post, 11/6/1917.
DONALD BROWN, V.C.
In that narrow defile of Thermopylae, where Leonadis and his three hundred Spartans preferred to perish rather than quit their post, there was chiselled on the rocky wall this inscription: "Go tell Sparta, thou that passeth by, that here obedient to her laws we lie."' Right down the nearly two thousand five hundred years which have gone into, the past since the days of Xerxes, the same spirit of obedience to the laws of their country and the same selfsacrificing willingness to die for the cause of freedom and righteousness have actuated the brave sons of all ages, it has been said by the philosopher that heroes are the growth of many yesterdays; that the nation is an almanac of self, the living record of its deeds, To-day the nations are at war and millions of our bravest and best — "whose blood is fet from fathers of war proof! Fathers that, like so many Alexanders . . .have fought and sheathed their swords for lack of argument" — are engaged in a life and death struggle with the Goliath of Evil. Even Sir John French himself has told us that he is at a loss for words to express the quenchless spirit of the British Army in attack or defence — "the indomitable courage and dogged tenacity" of the Old Army and of the New Armies and Territorials too. They are true to the "mettle of their ancient pasture." Did not Caesar himself use the Invincible Younger Britons in Egypt and Gaul. "'Twas always the same since Crecy," fell from the fallen Napoleon after Waterloo, indicating the utter refusal of the British to accept defeat! Donald Forrester Brown whose valorous deeds have gained for him an honoured place in the portrait gallery of heroes, proved himself a worthy son of a worthy race. His deeds like thousands of others, fairly burn through. His epic record of the Victoria Cross, and yet countless Unknown have passed with a brief flash of glory unrecognised. Beneath the blood-stained, shell-furrowed desolation of Northern France to-day where, hundreds of mounds hide the loved and honoured dead of our race, there sleeps Donald Forrester Brown, V.C. What more fitting epitaph could be written upon the tiny cross, which marks the last resting place of our hero than that expressing the spirit of Sparta: ''Tell England, thou that passeth by, that here obedient to her call we lie." The announcement that the posthumous award "For Valour" — the most coveted honour of the Sister Services — has been awarded to Sergeant Donald Brown, will be received with a deep sense, of gratification by the people of the district and indeed the people of the whole Dominion. It is a national recognition which should assauge the grief of relatives in the loss of a noble son. Sergeant Brown was busy at work at his little farm at Totara when the Mother Country's appeal for help rang round the world like a clarion call. His responsive ear caught its strains like a trumpet call and he went forward to fight in a war which is being waged to win for this Old World a new birth of freedom. The civilians of this country soon became soldiers of the nation, and it was Sir Douglas Haig himself who said of the New Zealand troops which fought so gallantly on the Somme, that "nothing in history has surpassed their soldierly qualities." Donald Forrester Brown was always in the front of the battle. On the great day when he rose to the pinnacle of valour he was a superman and the impossible became simple. But in the light he fe11.... He willingly, courageously and joyously gave back to England as thousand on thousands are giving back, the golden gift of happy freedom that future generations may have peace and hope. And now comes the official announcement that the deeds of this brave son of New Zealand have been recognised by the nation by the award of the Victoria Cross. But who shall record and weigh the heroism in this war? It would take a Milton — "smit with the love of sacred song" — to set forth in fit colours these terse paragraphs of the Loudon Gazette which announce the Victoria Cross. For apart from the deeds which indeed rob Death of its victory, the cause is in itself an epic. In the company of heroes — named and unnamed — the memory of the valorous deeds of Donald Forrester Brown will inspire future generations to nobler deeds and to greater sacrifices. What more fitting tribute can we lay upon the altar of their self-effacing service and supreme sacrifice than to say with Pericles in that eloquent eulogium, instinct with this spirit of dedication, of his compatriots who gave their lives, in defence of their city, that: "So they gave their bodies to the commonwealth and received each for his own memory, praise that will never die, and with it the grandest of all sepulchres, not that in which their mortal bodies are laid, but a home in the minds of men, where their glory remains fresh to stir to speech or action as the occasion comes by. For the whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives." The nation honours the deeds of Donald Forrester Brown and his fellow-citizens feel proud of the distinction he has won, But there is a deep note of sadness in the feelings of the people, and although we mourn the passing hence of the gallant soldier, we realise that Donald Forrester Brown chose the nobler part for:
He died as few men get the chance to die —
Fighting to save a world's morality,
He died the noblest death a man may die,
Fighting for God, and Right, and Liberty; —
And such a death is immortality. -North Otago Times, 11/6/1917.
Personalia
Mr A. H. O’Keefe (Dunedin) has been commissioned by the Government to paint the portrait of the late Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown, V.C. (Oamaru), for the National War Museum collection. The portrait will be in oils, half-length, life-size. Mr R. Wallwork; A.R.C.A., Art Master at Canterbury College School of Art, Christchurch, has been appointed to paint the portrait of the late Sergeant Forsyth, W.C (Wellington). -NZ Times, 29/10/1920.
RECOVERED AFTER 25 YEARS
DEAD V.C.’s WATCH.
As the result of inquiries made through the Returned Soldiers’ Association in respect to a wristlet watch, which was presented to the late Sergeant Donald Forrester Brown, V.C., by Totara friends in 1915, Mr C. Brown, of the Polytechnic, Oamaru, has now received the watch with an accompanying letter from Mr Robert Green, Papatoetoe, Auckland.
Mr Green writes; “I had intended on returning after the war to visit the South Island and deliver the watch personally. I have never been in the South Island, although I served throughout the war in the Second Otago Infantry Battalion, which I joined on the Somme in 1916. I have been moving about a lot in the last 20 years, and had forgotten all about the watch until about three months ago, when I was showing my children some souvenirs of the war, which had been packed away for years, and I came across the watch — so better late than never.
“So far as I can remember, I found it at a place called La Saille, not far from Fleurbaix, in either November or December, 1916, after we came out of the Somme. We were leaving some billets and I saw the watch on a shelf. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Later on I had a look at it, and saw the inscription on the back. I put it in my valise, and carried it right through until the end of the war. finishing up with the Army of Occupation in Germany.” -Pahiatua Herald, 25/10/1941.
Oamaru Cemetery.
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