The Hollies, Weetwood Leeds. Gifted to Leeds in Memory of Major Harold Brown, DSO MC Harold Brown went up to Jesus College, Cambridge where he gained his B.A. While there he enlisted in October 1898 as a Private in the Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers and was commissioned on 21st March 1900. He was promoted to Lt on the 13th June and to Captain on the 28th November of the same year, in which rank he served until his service terminated on the 5th December 1902. He obtained a teaching post at Filey, N Yorks and lived at Linkfield, 61 West Avenue. maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=61+West+Avenue,+Filey&hl=en&... When War was imminent he re-enlisted on the 14th June 1914 in the local unit of the Territorial Force, the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and went with them to France on the 18th April 1915. On the 24th July 1915 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and promoted to Captain. On the 6th August he was taken ill with appendicitis and repatriated to the UK, returning to duty abroad on the 4th November 1915. With the 5th Yorks Battn he took part in the 1916 offensive on the Somme and for action during this time he was awarded the Military Cross. On the 16th September 1916, he suffered a gunshot wound to his right foot and damage to his ear from a shell. He was returned again to hospital in the UK and returned to duty on the 23rd November 1916 with his hearing and right foot movement impaired. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm on the 9th December 1916 and mentioned in Despatches on the 29th December 1916. He was again wounded on the 26th April 1917 by gunshots to his head and thigh and spent a month at No 8 Field Hospital, Rouen before being sent back to hospital at Harrogate, N Yorks. Once again he recovered and was sent back to France on the 15th August 1916. He served as Captain and Brevet Major with the 5th Yorks Battn until the 30 December 1917, when he was promoted to Acting Major and appointed as Second in Command of the 4th Yorks Battn. He was killed in action on the 23rd March 1918. His body never having been recovered, he is commemorated on the Poziers Memorial. . homepage.ntlworld/bandl.danby/Pic053PozieresMemorialE... A statue of him was placed after the War at the Sledmere Memorial. lorettoniansociety.org.uk/memorial/ww1/photos/brown.jpg Major Brown was a friend of Lt. Col Sir Mark Sykes and had founded a school for disabled young men before the war. Major Browns grief-stricken Father presented a house called The Hollies and its extensive Parkland Gardens to Leeds City Council in his Memory. leodis.net/imagesLeodis/screen/93/2002318_8475893.jpg current view:- maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=the+hollies+leeds+16&hl=en&a... The last of his four children, Elizabeth, who fondly remembered him, died in America in 2000 Major Harold Brown, DSO MC Born: 4th January 1879 Died: 23rd March 1918 https://rhs.org.uk/gardens/GardenDetails?ID=780
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 18:24:25 +0000