Thomas Graham Brown

Thomas Graham Brown FRS (1882 – 1965) (usually known as T. Graham Brown) was a Scottish mountaineer and physiologist.

Life and family

Graham Brown was born in Edinburgh 1882; his father – Dr J. J. Graham Brown – was a President of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh. T. Graham Brown read science and medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the city before moving to Glasgow and then Liverpool. He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War I; after the war he continued his work on the physiology of the nervous system, particularly reflex movements and posture, [http://www.jstor.org/pss/769524 Obituary of Graham Brown at jstor.org] Accessed on 08 September 2008 and in 1924 he accepted the Chair in Physiology at the University of Wales at Cardiff. [http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst2625.html Portrait of Brown at geo.ac.uk] Accessed on 08 September 2008 In 1927 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. [http://www.jstor.org/pss/769524 Obituary of Graham Brown at jstor.org] Accessed on 08 September 2008

Alpinism

The south face of Mont Blanc was the scene of his most famous first ascents, his three new routes – the Sentinelle Rouge, Route Major and the Pear Butress – constituting "the most important new routes made by British climbers in the Alps in the inter-war years"."Editor's 'Notes on the Extracts', in "Peaks, Passes and Glaciers", ed. Walt Unsworth, London: Allen Lane, 1981, p. 280. In an article in the Alpine Journal Graham Brown wrote He climbed the first of these routes, the Sentinelle Rouge, with Frank Smythe in 1927; Smythe also accompanied him on the first ascent of Route Major in 1928. According to Claire Engel, "both expeditions were anong the most notable of the century".Claire Engel, "Mountaineering in the Alps", London: George Allen and Unwin, 1971, p. 192. The third route – the Pear Butress – ascended the large rock buttress on the left of the face.

Graham Brown was the editor of the Alpine Journal from 1949–53. [http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/snpc/list.cfm?letter=G Details of the Graham Brown collection at nls.co.uk] Accessed on 09 September 2008

Bequest

Graham Brown House houses his collection of Alpine and mountaineering literature which he gave to the National Library of Scotland. [http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/snpc/list.cfm?letter=G Details of the Graham Brown collection at nls.co.uk] Accessed on 08 September 2008 It is also used by student members of Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club. [http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst2625.html Portrait of Brown at geo.ac.uk] Accessed on 09 September 2008

References