Aviation pioneer. Born in Glasgow. After training as an engineer, Brown entered the Royal Air Force during World War I as a pilot. He was shot down over Germany and was for a time a prisoner-of-war.
Brown gained international fame as the navigator of the first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in 1919. The flight, in a Vickers Vimy biplane piloted by John Alcock, began in Newfoundland (Canada) and ended more than 16 hours later in Galway (Ireland). Alcock and Brown shared a £10,000 prize offered by the Daily Mail newspaper and each received knighthoods from King George V for their efforts.
Brown settled in Wales, working as an engineer for the Vickers company. He died in Swansea.