838219 Pte. Hector Campbell Brown was born on February 23rd, 1878, in Victoria, British Columbia. Moving to Owen Sound Hector was living in the Kilbourn Block with his wife, Susan, and was working as a cigar maker when hostilities began.
With the raising of the 147th (Grey) Battalion Hector joined the cause, attesting to it in Owen Sound on November 27th, 1915.
Billeted locally over the winter, the 147th Battalion mobilized in Owen Sound in the spring of 1916 and left for training at Camp Niagara. As the conditions in the Camp were wanting the unit moved to the new training facility of Camp Borden in late June. In September the unit received their orders to proceed overseas, but due to an outbreak of diphtheria they were detained in Amherst, Nova Scotia, for over a month. The unit finally sailed for Great Britain on November 14th, 1916, on the S.S. Olympic, a sister ship to the Titanic.
On January 1st, 1917, the 147th Battalion ceased to exist when it became the nucleus for the 8th Reserve Battalion, whose task it was to supply reinforcements to the 58th Battalion and the 4th C.M.R. Hector was taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R. on October 5th, 1917 and would have seen action at Passchendaele.
Serving for the remainder of the war without noteable incident, Hector was struck off strength on January 1st, 1919. Although Battalion records show that he was discharged with no visible wounds, the date of his discharge lends itself to either illness or disease as the cause of his early release.
Sadly, Hector passed away aged just 55 on January 1st, 1934, at Christie Street Hospital, from myocarditis, attributed to his service.
Private Hector Campbell Brown lies at rest in Greenwood Cemetery, Owen Sound, Ontario.
Biography details credit: George Auer