The family grave

The family headstone reads:

In
Loving
Remembrance
Norman Poole
10th East Yorks Regt.
dearly loved elder son of
Ernest P. & Mary E.E. Brown
Died Feb. 22nd 1919,
Result of wounds received in action
Aged 20 years.
Greater love hath no man than this.
Also the above Ernest P. Brown
Died Dec. 8th 1941 aged 73 years.
Also Mary E., loved wife of the above Ernest
Died June 2nd 1955 aged 83 years.

Whitley Seaside Chronicle and Visitors' Gazette - Saturday, 08/03/1919:

'Military funeral
Death in hospital of Private N. P. Brown, of Whitley Bay

On Saturday last, at Whitley New Cemetery, the funeral took place with military honours, of Private Norman Poole Brown, 10th East York's Regiment and elder son of Mr and Mrs E. P. Brown, of Victoria Avenue, Whitley Bay.

Deceased who was twenty years of age, expired in Fulham Military Hospital on the 22nd February, as the result of wounds.

He joined the East Riding Yorkshire Yeomanry on March 1st, 1917, in which he was promoted to Lance Corporal, and became 1st class musketry instructor. He was then transferred to the 10th East Yorks and went to France on July 31st, 1918. Reported missing on September 7th, he was next heard of in Antwerp Hospital suffering from a broken thigh on November 27th. He was brought from thence to Fulham Hospital, where an operation was found necessary, but was found unavailing.

The deceased was a native of Manchester, where he was educated, and on coming to Whitley Bay with his parents, became a clerk with the Northumberland Education Committee.

Prior to joining the colours he was a member of the 1st Whitley Bay Scouts, a goodly number of whom attended the last sad obsequies, with their Scoutmaster, R. J. Addiscott.The funeral service was conducted by Capt., the Rev. Husley Griffith, and attended by numerous relatives and friends.

Private Brown's treatment by the Germans In giving examples of what many of our wounded prisoners suffered under German medical treatment, the Daily Mail in a recent issue gives particulars of Private Brown's case, amongst others, brought back from German hospitals to Fulham.

Private Brown, of the East Yorkshire Regiment, is another inmate of this hospital who is a sample of German malpractice. He was wounded and taken prisoner in September last when in front of his line cutting German wire. A piece of shrapnel entered his left thigh and broke the large bone of the leg. On his reaching Turcoing an operation was performed by the German surgeon.

When the femur or large bone of the leg has been broken, as Brown's had been, weights must be put on the leg, for otherwise the muscles would persistently draw the lower piece of bone upwards and force the upper pieces outwards.

This continual upward pull of the muscles would, unless weights were applied draw the upper piece of bone outward until it assumed a position almost at right angles to its normal position, and in other words, it would be horizontal instead of perpendicular.

Two weeks after the operation Brown was removed to another German hospital where the weights were removed from the wounded leg and a metal and wire splint was put on. The released muscles immediately began to pull the upper piece of the fractured bone out of place. Day by day the bone was drawn upwards, and day by day Brown's leg shortened.

That this was seen and known by the German doctors was shown by the fact that they daily bent the metal splint on the leg to fit the shortening limb.

Abscesses formed and repeated operations followed. When Brown was repatriated and brought to this hospital in Dec. 27th his wound was in a very septic condition and his wounded leg was 9½ in. shorter than the other leg. An X-ray picture of the bone showed the upper part sticking out horizontally from pelvic bone and the lower portion heading down at an acute angle from the upper one. Subsequently, the bone had to .. (?) (?) .. and the upper part pulled down. This was done, and thereby 6 in in length added to the wounded leg. Brown had been in such a dreadful condition for so long that whether or not he will recover is hard to say.

Acknowledgements: Angela Conroy

Norman Poole Brown is remembered at Whitley Bay on W84.01 and W84.30

Rockcliffe First School Roll of Honour
The CWGC entry for Private Brown