Charles E. Brown (photographer)
Charles E. Brown (20 January 1896,
Biography
Born in 1896, his father Edward James Brown was a butcher with premises situated in Arthur Road,
War Service
In 1915 Charles Brown applied for a posting to the Photographic Section of the Royal Naval Air Service and was turned down. After continuing to work on photographic assignments for the Daily Mirror in the United Kingdom, he was eventually drafted to the 532nd Agricultural Depot, Royal Engineers as a medical orderly based at Wrexham, Wales. After passing a trade test in photography with the Royal Engineers on 10 August 1918, Brown had further photographic work with the Royal Air Force at their official London Photographic Centre. Leaving military service on 17 January 1919, Brown rejoined his pre-war colleagues at the Daily Mirror newspaper.
Freelance Photographer
After former Daily Mirror staff had left in the post-war period to establish a press agency, Charles Brown also left the Daily Mirror and established his own freelance press photography business. Specialising in travel, including promotional materials and media, he also specialised in railway photography and in 1924 a snapshot of a boy talking to a driver of a
After the success of the Southern Railway poster, this allowed Charles Brown to expand and diversify his freelance press business to include the developing aviation in the 1920s and 1930s. Accepting photographic commissions from major aircraft manufactures from
In 1940 his business premises in Fleet Street, London were bombed during The Blitz shattering many glass negatives. Work during wartime included commissions for Aeronautics magazine. A wartime commission for Flying magazine in the United States included a rare supply of Kodachrome and Ektachrome film.
Gallery
Sources
- ISBN 0-906393-31-0
- ISBN 0-906393-31-0