Cameron

Cameron Forster Brown, born 13 September 1893, was the younger brother of Doris, later Doris Ives Smith whose pen name was Catherine Ives. Their parents were Marion Wintle and Thomas Forster Brown, a mining engineer, of Stoke Bishop, Bristol. 

Cameron went to school at Aysgarth, Winchester and Clifton College before going on to Caius College, Cambridge.

He became firm friends with Ashley Smith, his brother in law.

Here below are some photographs of Cameron at school and age about 21 on joining the army.


Cameron at school




Cameron at Cambridge and on joining the army, age 21






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Cameron Forster Brown and his letters from the trenches

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Cameron Forster Brown (1893-1916) was my grandmother's brother. The two of them were very close. At the outbreak of WW1, he enlisted in the Cambridgeshire Regiment, obtaining a commission in November 1914 in the 12th Battalion Rifle Brigade .  Portrait of James Cameron Forster Brown in uniform The 12th battalion was part of 20th Light Division, which on 22 August 1916, relieved 24th Division on the Somme near Delville Wood, after an unsuccessful attack on Guillemont. 20th Division found itself under heavy German attack in horrific conditions as described in The History of the Rifle Brigade in the War of 1914-1918:  " On the night 25/26th, when the Division side-stepped five hundred yards to the right, the Tenth Battalion came into a sector of trenches of a horror that can hardly be imagined. Not merely was the front line impossible to be held: it could only be approached by men of the most iron fortitude. The position was dangerously exposed to fire from the village; but that ...
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This letter in blue pencil states, " If you want to know where I am get the Graphic of Oct 2nd. There's a birds Eye view of the British front. Right in the middle there's a line like this. We are about the H in the first British. Pleased to hear about the Lancia. Yes, waders and the waterproof overalls to go under the boots. Try Anderson & Anderson, Oxford St, I think. Size for waders you can find from two prs of old boots of mine Doris has. My Goldings are rapidly going. We had an awful alarm. We had come out of the trenches the night before at 4:00 o'clock am. There was an enormous explosion followed by a bombardment. We were called up, the adjutant rushed in and said, 'they're over the top already,' imagine our state! Yours ever, Cameron " I've ordered a copy of The Graphic for October 2nd 1915 and will update when it arrives.
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