Cousin of John Brown, the author of *Rab and His Friends*; was educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated MD with honours and CM with the highest honours, in 1863. He returned to Edinburgh after carrying on a successful practice for ten years at Wynberg, Cape Colony, and became Demonstrator of Anatomy in the University, and received the diplomas of Member and Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons on the same day in 1878, having previously obtained the DPH of Cambridge and of Edinburgh. Choosing to work amongst the poorer classes in Lancashire, he became a junior partner with Dr Henry Briggs, of Burnley, becoming senior partner in due course and then having (Sir) James Mackenzie the cardiologist as his junior. Having married the daughter of a former Premier of Cape Colony, he returned to the Cape when he retired from practice shortly after the South African War, and died at Mowbray, Cape of Good Hope, on May 7th, 1929.