Edwin Brown

Background

Edwin Arthur Brown (b. 22 July 1878, Eccles, Manchester, England¹–d. 19 September 1955, Gloucester, England²) was a broker, municipal councillor and long-time stalwart of music and theatre in Singapore. He is perhaps best remembered for his memoir describing life in Edwardian Singapore.³

Early life and professional career
Brown began work in 1896 as an assistant at Hiltermann Brothers, a shipping company in Manchester. Five years later, the company sent him to work for their Singapore branch, Brinkmann and Company, where he was one of two non-German employees. He remained with the company until 1918, when he became a partner in Adis & Ezekiel exchange brokers.⁴

Public service
Municipal commission
Brown was the vice-president of the Straits Settlements (Singapore) Association.⁵ He was appointed as a municipal commissioner in 1921 and served for over 16 years in the position.⁶ He was instrumental in the creation of the Parks and Open Spaces Committee, which developed Jalan Besar Stadium, Singapore’s first public pool at Mount Emily and Katong Park, which was sited on a former military site.⁷

Brown also spearheaded efforts to form the police brass band⁸ and installed the St Clair organ in Victoria Memorial Hall in 1931.⁹ He was a driving force behind the formation of the Singapore Musical Society and set up the Children’s Orchestra.¹⁰ Brown left the municipal commission in 1940.¹¹

Singapore Volunteer Corps
Brown joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps (Rifle) in 1901.¹² The corps was dissolved in 1904, but about 30 diehards, including Brown, refused transfer into other units and continued reporting for duty. The Maxim Gun Company of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery was eventually established to accommodate them.¹³ In 1913 Brown was given command of the Chinese Company of the Singapore Volunteer Corps and worked closely with Song Ong Siang.¹⁴ The two became friends, and Brown was the best man at Song’s wedding.¹⁵

In 1915 Brown was commended for his cool-headed leadership of the inexperienced force that broke the siege of Alexandra Barracks during the sepoy mutiny, a critical point in the mutiny’s suppression.¹⁶ He acted as the Singapore Volunteer Corps’ last commandant in 1921, and then re-enlisted as a private in the new Straits Settlements Volunteer Force. After being decorated for his long service, Brown retired with the rank of major in 1923.¹⁷

Contributions to culture in Singapore
Music
In 1901, Brown joined the St Andrew’s Cathedral choir, and became its choirmaster in 1910.¹⁸

Brown was involved in arranging music for numerous special public occasions. These included helping to prepare a choral welcome for the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) in 1901, conceiving and overseeing a short performance by 10,000 children for the Prince of Wales in 1922, and organising an interdenominational concert celebrating the 1937 coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.¹⁹ Brown was chiefly behind the Singapore Musical Society,²⁰ and established and conducted a Children’s Orchestra for six- to 16-year-olds. Their first radio broadcast in 1934 was attended by important local personalities and heard by the Master of the King’s Music in England.²¹

Amateur drama
Brown had acted semi-professionally in Manchester and accepted an invitation to join the cast of a musical soon after moving to Asia. In 1906, he formed the Singapore Amateur Dramatic Committee along with individuals such as E. F. H. Edlin and F. A. Langley.²² He performed at a memorial concert after Arthur Sullivan’s death in 1901; stage-managed and starred in the 1909 staging of The Pirates of Penzance at the inauguration of Victoria Theatre; and sang songs from The Mikado in a tea house in Kobe, Japan. Appointed the foreman of the set construction, he also assisted with the backstage work for a pantomime of Cinderella staged at Fort Canning by members of the Royal Garrison Artillery.²³ One of his last performances was The Sorcerer in 1940, in which he was lauded as a scene-stealer.²⁴

Other activities and honours
Besides music and drama, Brown was also active in sports. His shooting skills twice earned him the Rifle Association’s Governor’s Cup, and he played in Singapore’s first football league, which was established in 1904.²⁵ In addition, Brown was president of the Singapore and South Malaya Boy Scouts Association during the 1920s.²⁶ Only a fraction of his experiences was included in his memoir, Indiscreet Memories, which focused on his first four years in Singapore. The book, which recounted events “grave and gay” and colourful characters who lived in or simply passed through Singapore, portrayed a way of life lost due to the colony’s rapid development.²⁷

Retirement
In 1933 Brown received the honour of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Civil Division).²⁸ Interned during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore (1942–45), Brown retired after liberation in 1945. He returned to England, where he died in 1955.²⁹

Published works
1921: “Music”, published in One hundred years of Singapore³⁰
1929: St Andrew’s Cathedral and its Music³¹
1935: Indiscreet Memories³²

Family
Brown married the sister of his friend from Manchester. The couple had two daughters, Barbara and Shelagh, and a son, Alec.³³



Author
Duncan Sutherland



References
1. Who’s Who in Malaya 1925 (Singapore: n.p., 1925), 43. (Call no. RRARE 920.9595 WHO; microfilm NL6705)
2. “Memory Man Mr Brown Is Dead,” Straits Times, 22 September 1955, 9. (From NewspaperSG)
3. “Government House Investiture,” Straits Times, 25 September 1933, 6 (From NewspaperSG); “Memory Man Mr Brown Is Dead.”
4. Who’s Who in Malaya 1925, 43–44; Edwin A. Brown, Indiscreet Memories (Singapore: Monsoon Books, 2007), 15. (Call no. RSING 959.5703 BRO-[HIS])
5. Edwin A. Brown, “Straits Settlements (Singapore) Association,” Straits Times, 31 May 1922, 10. (From NewspaperSG)
6. Who’s Who in Malaya 1925, 44; “Municipal Old Boys Who Have Retired,” Straits Times, 27 January 1940, 11. (From NewspaperSG)
7. “Municipal Old Boys Who Have Retired”; “Government House Investiture.”
8. “Municipal Commission,” Singapore Free Press, 25 September 1925, 16; “Music Jottings,” Straits Times, 6 September 1924, 9. (From NewspaperSG)
9. “Municipal Old Boys Who Have Retired”; “Opening of the St. Clair Organ,” Malayan Saturday Post, 26 September 1931, 21. (From NewspaperSG)
10. “Government House Investiture”; “Children’s Orchestra ‘On the Air’,” Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1934), 26 July 1934, 9. (From NewspaperSG)
11. “Municipal Old Boys Who Have Retired.”
12. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 61; Who’s Who in Malaya, 1939: A Biographical Record of Prominent Members of Malaya’s Community in Official, Professional and Commercial Circles (Singapore: Fishers Ltd, 1939), 39. (Call no. RCLOS 920.9595 WHO-[RFL])
13. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 191–2, 204–5.
14. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 78; “Public Services Recognised,” Malayan Saturday Post, 26 September 1931, 19; “S.V.C. Orders,” Straits Times, 17 July 1913, 2. (From NewspaperSG)
15. Song Ong Siang, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1984), 246. (Call no. RSING 959.57 SON-[HIS])
16. R.W.E. Harper and Harry Miller, Singapore Mutiny (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1984), 157 (Call no. RSING 355.1334095957 HAR); Song, One Hundred Years’ History of the Chinese in Singapore, 514; “Memory Man Mr Brown Is Dead.”
17. Who’s Who in Malaya 1925, 44; “Government House Investiture.”
18. Who’s Who in Malaya 1925, 44; “Memory Man Mr Brown Is Dead.”
19. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 55; “The Royal Visit,” Straits Times, 17 March 1922, 10; “Great Empire Service,” Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), 2 April 1937, 2; “S.S.C. Coronation Dinner and Dance,” Straits Times, 6 April 1937, 13. (From NewspaperSG)
20. “Government House Investiture.”
21. “First Broadcast,” Straits Times, 26 July 1934, 13. (From NewspaperSG)
22. Walter Makepeace, Gilbert E. Brooke and Roland St. J. Braddell, eds., One Hundred Years of Singapore, vol. 2 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991), 398 (Call no. RSING 959.57 ONE-[HIS]); Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 33.
23. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 78, 168, 229; “New Theatre Opened,” Straits Times, 12 February 1909, 7. (From NewspaperSG)
24. “‘The Sorcerer’ Rehearsal,” Straits Times, 11 November 1940, 8. (From NewspaperSG)
25. Who’s Who in Malaya, 1939, 39; Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 193.
26. “Untitled,” Straits Times, 5 February 1923, 8. (From NewspaperSG)
27. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, foreword.
28. “Government House Investiture”; Who’s Who in Malaya, 1939, 39; “King’s Birthday Honours,” Straits Times, 3 June 1933, 11. (From NewspaperSG)
29. “Memory Man Mr Brown Is Dead.”
30. Makepeace, Brooke and Braddell, One Hundred Years of Singapore, 406–15.
31. Edwin A. Brown, St Andrew’s Cathedral and Its Music (Singapore: Fraser & Neave, 1929), 17–18. (Call no. RRARE 781.71 BRO; microfiche NL0015/019)
32. Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 4.
33. “Naval Officer Married at Cathedral,” Straits Times, 19 April 1939, 15 (From NewspaperSG); Brown, Indiscreet Memories, 172; Celia Ferguson, Foreword to Singapore Mutiny: A Colonial Couple's Stirring Account of Combat and Survival in the 1915 Singapore Mutiny, by Edwin A rown & Mary Brown, xxvii-xxxv. (Singapore: Monsoon Books, 2015), xxxii. (Call no. RSING 959.5703 BRO)

The information in this article is valid as of August 2023 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.