Private, 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Service number 3/9187.
Early life:
Louis was born in Oakworth in 1882 and the birth was registered in Keighley in the third quarter of the year. Parents James and Betty Brown.
His Father James was a wool cloth warp dresser. They were living at 6, Goodley in Oakworth in 1891 when Louis was eight, along with his two older brothers Hargreaves and Joseph plus their maternal grandmother Mary Holmes.
By 1901 they had moved just down the road to the terrace across from Oakworth Hall and he was eighteen years old and living there with his parents and younger brother Arthur. His father was working as a cotton warp dresser and Louis was a wool comb setter.
The marriage banns were read out at Christ Church in Oakworth on the 8th, 15th and 22nd of February 1903 and Louis married Mary Beatrice Gill in February 1903 at Oakworth Parish Church with the marriage being registered at Keighley in the first quarter of the year.
Their son George was born three years later on January 3, 1906 and his birth was registered at Keighley.
Mary and George were living with her parents at Oxenhope in 1911, there is no sign of Louis and it’s likely he was away, serving with the 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, who were based in Ireland at that time.
War service:
Very early in the war, Louis was called to the colours at Keighley (resident in Haworth) and served with the 2nd Battalion, West Riding Regiment. He went out to France on September 11, 1914 and was involved with the retreat from Mons. He was killed in action on April 18, 1915.
An overview of the 2nd Battalion, West Riding Regiment war diary for April 18, 1915:
The 2nd Battalion took part in a fixed bayonet charge from huge mine craters created after they had set off explosive charges to destroy the German front lines at Hill 60. They set off from these craters and charged the secondary German trench lines, taking them after a struggle against the German garrison forces holding them. These were consolidated and held without any counter attacks from the Germans.
Private Louis Brown was killed during these attacks although it wasn’t until later when he was presumed dead.
He is buried in grave 16, row D of plot VI at Oostaverne Wood Cemetery in Belgium.
Post war:
Louis was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star with clasp, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.
These would have gone to his wife Mary Beatrice and their son George along with a memorial plaque and scroll in 1920 or 1921. Mary received his outstanding back pay of £19 19s 17d in 1918 and a war gratuity of £5 in October 1919.
He is named on the Oakworth War memorial.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Free BMD Birth Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
1911 England Census.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers died in the Great War.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929..
Oakworth War Memorial.
Oakworth Methodist Church roll of honour.
