Lieutenant Douglas Brown

Lieutenant Douglas Burn Buchan Brown, Royal Navy. He was lost at sea, aged 29,aboard, H.M.S. “Indefatigable” on the 31st May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland. He was born at Shawpark, Selkirk to Buchan Brown of the Transvaal, South Africa and Frances Brown of Earls Court, London and is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet in 1914, was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant in 1907 and as a Lieutenant in 1909. At the outbreak of War he was serving at the Gunnery School on Whale Island, Portsmouth before joining the Battlecruiser in January 1915. The ” Indefatigable” was a Battlecruiser of 18,500 tons and had been commissioned in 1911 from H.M. Dockyard Devonport. She was armed with 8 “12” inch guns in four turrets and carried a complement of around 1,000. On the 31st May the ship was stationed at Rosyth as part of the 2nd Battle Cruiser Squadron together with her sister ship H.M.S. “New Zealand”. On that date having received intelligence that the German High Seas Fleet had left port the Rosyth Squadron consisting of several powerful units under Sir David Beatty ( including the new Super Dreadnoughts. “Warspite”, “Valiant”, “Malaya” and “Barham” of the 5th Battle Squadron with their 15 inch guns ) sailed into the North Sea whilst the main body of the Grand Fleet steamed down from Scapa Flow. Beatty’s ships encountered the enemy first and in the opening salvoes the ” Indefatigable” was struck by shells from the German battlecruiser ” Von Der Tann”. These shells caused a massive magazine explosion and the ship sank leaving only 3 survivors from a crew of 1,019.

Scroll to Top