Born at Lichfield, he was educated at Mason College and the Birmingham Medical School. He went to South Africa immediately after qualifying in 1899, to serve in the RAMC during the war. He came home to take the Fellowship in 1903, but returned to practise at Uitenhage, where he married in 1909 Grace Cecilia Heugh. He served at Gallipoli and in East Africa during the war of 1914-19, and after the war practised at Klerksdorp, South Africa, whence he went back to Uitenhage, practising there till 1932. He then came to England for postgraduate study in gynaecology and obstetrics, and was appointed gynaecologist and obstetrician to the Provincial Hospital, Port Elizabeth in 1934. He joined the South African Medical Corps on the outbreak of war in 1939 and was appointed ADMS, Eastern Province, serving later in Kenya and at the 4th General Hospital in Egypt; he was discharged in 1943 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a prominent member of the Cape Midlands branch of the South African Medical Association. Brawn was a keen Rugby football player. He was captain of the Uitenhage Swifts XV in 1905-07, and played for Eastern Province in 1906. He was President of the Swifts Club 1923-26, and Patron 1927-51. Brawn died at Port Elizabeth on 28 November 1954, aged 78, survived by his wife, his son and two daughters, one of them a doctor.