Biography

William Brown 1849–1930

William Brown was born at Linlithgow Bridge, Scotland, in 1849, and emigrated to Dunedin circa 1876. His father was a carpenter. His mother, Ann White, came from Milngavie, near Glasgow. In 1876 William Brown and Helen Boyd Graham were married at Dunedin; they were to have seven children. William died of acute bronchitis and cardiac failure in 1930.

Five of his children are also buried in the Northern Cemetery: William Graham d. 1879, Andrew Aitken d. 1889, Helen Graham d. 1956, Ann White d. 1961, and Andrew d. 1963. Ann White Brown, born circa 1881, was also known as Nan; her married name was Sheenan.

There were two other children. James married and left Dunedin before his mother’s death in 1917. A second, longer-lived, William Graham Brown, born in 1885, became an engineer before leaving New Zealand to study at the London School of Art. While in Britain he travelled to Scotland to visit his relatives, met his future wife there, and settled in Glasgow, where his descendants are still living. Unable to find work as an art teacher, he returned to his previous profession, which he practised until his death at Glasgow in 1936.

— Other burials recorded at the same site:
William Graham BROWN d. 1879,
Andrew Graham AITKEN d. 1887,
Andrew Aitken BROWN d. 1889,
Helen B BROWN d. 1917,
Catherine AITKEN d. 1923,
Helen Graham BROWN d. 1956,
Annie White SHEENAN d. 1961,
and Andrew BROWN d. 1963.