The Browne Brothers in the Great War

Roadside sign in Allans Flat, near Yackandandah, showing a photo of the Honour Boards (listing the three Brownes who served) from the Allans Flat School, now housed in the Anglican Church.

Three of the nine sons (and eleven children overall) of John Browne and Mary Browne (nee Phelan) saw action in the Great War with. One would pay the ultimate price, one would be severely wounded, and sickness would prevent the other from seeing any action.

Percy and William were born in Melbourne, Phillip in Beechworth. All three boys were students at the Allans Flat School (near Yackandandah) as the family resided in the area from the mid 1890s through to the untimely death of their mother in 1910. Their father John worked in the mining industry as a sluicer at that time, in the area where the waterhole stands today.

By the time the boys enlisted in the AIF, the family had spread out with Percy and Phillip residing in Footscray with their father John who had returned to his trade of stone mason. Percy was a labourer and Phillip a boilermaker. William meanwhile was working as a plumber in Ganmain, near Wagga Wagga in NSW.

While Phillip was the only one of the three to be killed during the conflict, perhaps war also took its toll on his two brothers as both were to die in their 40s.

Phillip Roy Browne

Phillip was the younger of the three brothers who served, but first to sign up, aged 20 on 9 July 1915. On 29 September, he embarked on the RMS Osterley, and while initially appointed to the 5th Battalion, ultimately became part of the new 58th Battalion while still in Egypt, on 15 March 1916. In June the battalions sailed from Alexandria to Marseilles, in preparation for action on the Western Front. The first major encounter would be at Fromelles. From the Australian War Memorial's website:

The battle of Fromelles on 19 July 1916 was a bloody initiation for Australian soldiers to warfare on the Western Front. Soldiers of the newly arrived 5th Australian Division, together with the British 61st Division, were ordered to attack strongly fortified German front line positions near the Aubers Ridge in French Flanders. The attack was intended as a feint to hold German reserves from moving south to the Somme where a large Allied offensive had begun on 1 July. The feint was a disastrous failure. Australian and British soldiers assaulted over open ground in broad daylight and under direct observation and heavy fire from the German lines. Over 5,500 Australians became casualties. Almost 2,000 of them were killed in action or died of wounds and some 400 were captured. This is believed to be the greatest loss by a single division in 24 hours during the entire First World War. Some consider Fromelles the most tragic event in Australia’s history.

It was at this disastrous battle that Private Phillip Browne was killed in action, though this was only officially confirmed on 2 September. His body is buried at the VC Corner Australian Cemetery there at Fromelles, in what was the 'no-mans land' between the Australian and German trenches, along with the remains of 400 other men.

William Gerald Browne

William was the oldest of the three brothers to serve, and second to sign up, aged 25, on 1 December 1915 at Wagga Wagga. After training at Goulburn (during which he was reported AWOL for four days in March 2016), he was appointed to the 30th Battalion, and on 2 May embarked from Sydney on the HMAT Honorata. Nearly two months were spent training in Egypt, and then from August 1916 to April 1918 William was based in England, spending some time with the 63rd Battalion and also the MG (Machine Gun) Corps. Finally in April 1918, William made it to France, where he served with the 1st MG Battalion. On 20 September he was wounded in the abdomen and chest, requiring his invaliding to England. On 11 November, the day of the Armistice, he was discharged from hospital. Private William Browne was sent home on the City of Exeter on 15 January 1919 (arriving home 2 March) and was discharged (medically unfit as a result of his wounds) on 20 April.

William returned to life as a plumber, but now in Sydney. He married Gladys Murray in 1922, and the couple had three children. Sadly though William succumbed to tuberculosis on 17 June 1931, aged just 40.

Percy Joseph Browne

Percy Joseph Browne enlisted in the AIF on 27 July 1916, trained at Broadmeadows and was appointed to the 57th Battalion. On 2 October he embarked on the Nestor, travelling directly to England, arriving Plymouth on 16 November. While there he had stints in hospital for bronchitis and asthma, as well as being admonished for disobeying orders (in June 1917). Unfortunately for Percy (or fortunately depending on which way you look at it!), the asthma got the better of him and on 27 September he was sent home, arriving back in Melbourne on 18 November, and discharged 21 December as medically unfit. 

Percy spent some years in the 1920s in Queensland as a labourer with his brother Leslie (who died at Longreach at just 23 years of age), before he settled in Sydney where he died on 18 April 1935, aged 46. He never married.

Sources: 'Battle of Fromelles', https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/fromelles