William Stanley BROWN #52635

Indigenous Australian, William BROWN, 2nd Light Horse Regiment

William 'Stanley' BROWN was born in Ipswich in 1896 and attended Deebing Creek Aboriginal school as a child. His father known as Billy was from Nerang, and his mother Topsy from Cressbrook Station via Esk. Stanley had been removed from Deebing Creek in 1913 and taken to the Aboriginal mission Barambah, now known as Cherbourg where he met and married Mary Reed in 1915. They were living and working in Ilbogan, Beaudesert when he volunteered to serve with the first AIF in May 1918.

Brown initially trained at Rifle Range Camp, Enoggera just outside Brisbane and was assigned to the 2nd General Reinforcements for Egypt. He left Australia on board the troopship HMAT Wiltshire in June 1918 arriving in Egypt 5 weeks later.

After further training with the Anzac Training Regiment, Brown was assigned to the 2nd Light Horse Regiment and joined his unit in the field in September 1918 at Wadi el Hamman, near the Sea of Galilee. Here the regiment undertook long range patrols along the Mediterranean coast east of the Jordan River. It was not long however before Brown succumbed to the debilitating effects of Malaria, prominent in the area.

Brown was removed from the field and admitted to several hospitals, before being repatriated home in February 1919. After the war Stanley lived and worked in the Beaudesert area until his death in 1944.

Read more ...

• SERVICE RECORD: BROWN, William Stanley
• Purga Aboriginal School 1895-1947
• Register of Marriage Applications 1908-1936
• Queensland Removals 1912-1939
• Unit War Diaries: 2nd Light Horse Regiment
• One of the soldiers featured in SLQ’s HistoryPin Collection
• Queensland’s Indigenous Servicemen [mp4]

The information in this blog post has been researched by State Library staff and volunteers, it is based on available information at this time. If you have more information that you would like to share or further research uncovers new findings, this post will be updated.