Cedric Brown was born in 1896, the elder of two sons of a family doctor, Edward Vipont Brown, living and working in Longsight, Manchester. The family were active Quakers, and opposed British participation in the war. Both sons aspired to follow their father as doctors, but Cedric, who had just left Bootham (Quaker) School in York when war was declared, deferred medical study, and volunteered for the Friends’ Ambulance Unit on its formation in August 1914.

Cedric was trained in paramedic/nursing duties at the FAU training camp set up at Old Jordans, Buckinghamshire, near the historic Friends’ Meeting House, before sailing from Dover to Dunkirk on 29 January 1915, and serving variously as medical orderly, ambulance driver and cook, in Kursall, St Pierre, Poperinghe, dealing not only with wounded soldiers, but civilians as well, such as Poperinghe clearing station on 25 April 1915:

“The sight of some fifteen badly wounded persons, men, women and children, lying in a row in what used to be a stable, is a sight I will never forget. It is war stripped of all its glory, leaving its cruel, bloody and repulsive self. As it was, I was detailed to help Reginald Curnock in dressing the patients. To make matters worse, we had only just moved into the station, and everything had to be sought from inconvenient places. Still, by the evening, all were dressed. Some of the wounds were indescribable – suffice it that they left an impression which I will never forget.”

In 1916, on the introduction of conscription, Cedric was included in the official ‘blanket’ acceptance of all serving members of the FAU as conscientious objectors, without the necessity to return to Britain to face a tribunal.

On 7 February 1919 his service was completed and he returned home. He took up his delayed medical studies at Manchester University and qualified as a doctor, joining his father’s practice. Edward Vipont Brown was active in the No-Conscription Fellowship and was highly regarded as a family doctor by a number of local CO families. Sadly, Cedric’s younger brother, Ralph, who volunteered for the Friends’ War Victims Relief Service after completing his first year at medical school, was caught up in the 1919 influenza epidemic, and died in France, being buried in a Commonwealth War Grave.

Brother of Ralph Vipont Brown