Born at Temuka, New Zealand, he was educated at Waitaki Boys' High School and at the Otago School of Medicine, qualifying in 1908. After serving as house surgeon at the Wellington Hospital, he came to England and entered the London Hospital. He played football in the hospital rugby XV and for four years for the south-eastern counties. During the 1914-18 war he served as surgeon in hospital ships, and then spent a year in England practising orthopaedic surgery. In 1920 he went home to New Zealand, settling in general practice at Invercargill in the south island. He was for a time medical superintendent of the Dee Street Hospital and then of the Southland Hospital, to which he later became senior surgeon. He was a member of the Southland division of the British Medical Association, and in 1932 was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He died at 69 Don Street, Invercargill, early in 1945 after long illness, survived by his wife, his daughter and his son, Rutherford S Brown of Dunedin. Brown had many interests outside his profession, including music, motoring, cricket, and football. He played cricket for Southland and was president of the Southland cricket association.