Major Sir Robert Hanbury Brown, K.C.M.G., R.E.

Figure 1. Sir Robert Hanbury Brown, K.C.M.G.
(Image courtesy of Lachlan Hanbury-Brown)

This research was undertaken as a result of research first started on his son’s service in the Royal Engineers during the Great War of 1914-1918. So much information was found regarding Sir Robert’s life and service that it was considered necessary by the author give him a separate listing on his web site. The information presented below came primarily from his Memoir that was published after his death in the September 1926 edition of The Royal Engineers Journal. The text of the Memoir was subdivided into sections and additional information discovered about his service was incorporated into the journal article. Where information is not cited in the Endnotes, the reader should assume that its source was the R.E. Journal Memoir.

Robert Hanbury Brown, the son of Dr. Robert Brown, F.R.C.S., was born on 13 January 1849. He was educated at Marlborough College and at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He joined the army as a Temporary Second Lieutenant of Royal Engineers on 8 January 1870,[1] and was at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, until July 1872. His temporary commission was made permanent on 2 August 1872.[2] He was posted to India in November of that year. In 1878 he was married to Marian, the daughter of the Reverend Edwin Meyrick, who was at that time Rector of Allington, Wiltshire. He had two sons and one daughter. His youngest son, Brevet Major Austen Hanbury Brown, D.S.O., M.C., Royal Engineers, served with the 8th Division in the 2^nd Field Company R.E. and was killed at Rosieres, Somme, in March 1918. His eldest son, Basil Hanbury Brown (1879-1951) served in the Indian Ordnance Department and as a Major in the Royal Artillery during the Great War.[3]

On his arrival in India, Lieutenant Brown was posted, in the first instance, to the Bengal Sappers and Miners at Roorkee. In March 1873, he was appointed an Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department of Bengal and served in the Irrigation Branch of that Department until 1884. During his service in India he was called up for military duty in the Afghan campaign of 1878-1880. During that campaign he served in “I” Company of the Madras Sappers and Miners as an Assistant Field Engineer in the Khyber Line Force. His most significant work was that of the construction of three bridges over the Kabul River near Jalalabad. For his service he was mentioned twice in despatches.[4]

Figure 2. A Bridge Over the Kabul River During the Afghan Campaign, 1878-1880.
(Image courtesy of the National Army Museum)

Brown returned to India after the Afghan campaign and continued to serve with the Indian Sappers and Miners and on 8 January he was promoted to Captain.[5] In 1884, Egypt badly needed Irrigation Engineers to control and develop the great Irrigation works of the Nile, and Brown was deputed, with others, for the work. He was promoted to Major on 1 July 1888[6] and did much for Egypt. He lived to see the land he had helped to irrigate increase vastly in fertility and value. His service in Egypt extended over nearly twenty years. During that time he was awarded a number of decorations to include:

· Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George on 6 December 1902 upon the inauguration of the Aswan low dam, the construction of which took place between 1898 and 1902.[10]

Brown was the Inspector of Irrigation in Egypt from 1884 and later was appointed to be the Inspector General of Irrigation of Lower Egypt for some years before he retired from the Army and from Egyptian Service on 3 May 1903.[11] He was elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1904.

There was a little incident in the life of Sir Robert Hanbury Brown which is typical of the man. When he, with two or three others, was walking one day along the crest of an embankment in India the bank suddenly collapsed under his feet and he and a coolie who was walking close by him fell together into a cavity in the heart of the embankment. The position of the two was somewhat critical and decidedly unpleasant. He refused to be helped out of the pit until the coolie had been first hauled up.

Nearly the whole of the professional life of Sir Robert Hanbury Brown was spent in the design, construction and administration of Irrigation works. As a young Assistant Engineer in India he helped in the construction of the Patna Canal, which is one of the main branches of the system of canals drawn from the Sone river and which irrigates some 600,000 acres of rice and other lands in the Behar district of India.

In Egypt, one of the most useful works constructed by him was the Zifta Barrage[12] on the Damietta branch of the Nile. This work regulated the distribution of the water, and the cultivators realised a rich harvest in the improvement in the area and out-turn of their crops. But the work which firmly established his reputation as an Engineer, and which he himself probably regarded as the most interesting and satisfactory, was the work he did in ensuring the stability of the great Delta Barrage across the Nile below Cairo which was constructed by Mougel Bey before the British occupation of Egypt. This stability was secured, first, by a system of grouting the original Barrage itself, and then by the construction of two subsidiary weirs below that Barrage.

In 1902, Major Sir Robert Hanbury Brown published a book, "The Delta Barrage of Lower Egypt," which describes the work which was carried out. The two subsidiary weirs were built by a novel system which was mainly, if not entirely, his own. He described this system in a paper, read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in March 1904, entitled "The Use of Cement Grout at the Delta Barrage in Egypt." For this paper he was granted the Telford Medal.[14] In the discussion on the paper, Sir Benjamin Baker said, "He was convinced that when the paper by Sir Robert Hanbury Brown was carefully studied, and the novelty involved in the details was seen, the work would be valued very highly. He believed that nowhere throughout the world, up to the present, had the capabilities of cement been demonstrated to the extent which had been shown in an unostentatious way by Sir Robert Hanbury Brown." Sir Benjamin further remarked that the author of the paper had overcome certain difficulties which had arisen," with the result that he had carried the two weirs across the two branches of the Nile very rapidly, and had done what had never been done before, namely, made locks on the grouting principle without any dams or pumping."

After his retirement from the Egyptian service, Brown was called upon, on several occasions, to give a professional opinion on irrigation matters. In this he worked in partnership with other consultants. In Dongola, in Spain, in South America and in the Sudan his advice was sought and given. He was ready with his pen and contributed not a few articles to the Engineering Press. His article in the "Engineer" in November 1912, on "Land Values in Egypt" dealt with the benefits which the Aswan Dam in Upper Egypt had conferred both on government and the people. He showed by statistical statements that the value of the land, which came under the influence of the great reservoir formed by the dam, had increased in a period of only three years from about £192,000,000 to about M88,000,000,[15] and, at the same time, the increased land taxes collected by the government were equivalent to five per cent on the capital outlay. So that not only had the government received full value for their investment, but the people of the country had vastly increased their wealth.

Sir Robert Hanbury Brown was the author of several books. Among those on engineering subjects, the one entitled "Irrigation: its Principles and Practice" passed through three editions, and is one of the standard books on the subject. He wrote also on other subjects than professional ones: his “Land of Goshen and the Exodus" is a book containing an interesting study of a portion of the history of the Children of Israel, and "The Fayum and Lake Moeris" is another of his books which is fascinating in its description of that interesting depression in the desert. Sir Robert Hanbury Brown was always a photographer of no mean ability, as many exhibitions in the village of Crawley Down, where he lived, could testify. In his later years he took up wireless telegraphy with his usual enthusiasm. He taught himself the Morse code and amused himself, in his leisure moments, in venting down numerous messages received from all sorts of people, many of them quite uninteresting in themselves.

Robert Hanbury Brown was closely associated with the Sussex Volunteer Training Corps during the Great War. On 1 September 1916 he was appointed a Temporary Major in the 7^th Battalion (East Grinstead), Sussex Volunteer Regiment.[16] He was subsequently promoted and appointed to command the 3^rd Battalion, Sussex Volunteer Regiment and on 1 February 1918 he reverted back to the rank of Temporary Captain on ceasing to command the battalion.[17] On the following day he was appointed to the rank of Temporary Major again, to be second in command of the 3^rd Volunteer Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.[18]

Brown was always an active member of the little community of Crawley Down and Copthorne in Sussex. The Boy Scouts, the British Legion, and the Parochial Council, all felt the value of his kindly help and co-operation, while the few who now remain of those with whom he worked in India and Egypt remember how he always inspired esteem and respect in all who were associated with him.

Major Sir Robert Hanbury Brown, K.C.M.G., R.E. died on 4 May 1926 at “Newlands,” Crawley Down, Sussex. The probate of his Will took place at London on 18 June 1926 with his effects going to Dame Marian Brown, his widow and to Hugh Wilson Molesworth, a gentleman. Brown’s effects amounted to £29,543 and 1 shilling (approximately $3,103,100 US in 2024 currency). Apparently Sir Robert had done very well during his civil life as an irrigation consultant.

Hugh Wilson Molesworth had been a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Engineers. He and Brown must have been close friends during their time in the Army for his to be bequeathed some money by Brown upon his death.

Dame Marian Brown passed away on 9 July 1934. Probate of her will took place in London on 3 August 1934 with her effects going to Basil Hanbury Brown (her son), retired Colonel in His Majesty’s Army and to Hugh Wilson Molesworth, a retired Egyptian government official. Her effects amount to £33,017, 5 shillings and 7 pence. Her will was resworn at £32,865, 5 shillings and 7 pence (approximately $4,962,500 US in 2024 currency). Dame Marian’s address at the time of her death also was “Newlands,” Crawley Down, Sussex.

1. SHADBOLT, S.H. The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880. J.B. Hayward & Son, London, 197?.

2. WATSON, C.M. The History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. Volume III. The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, Kent, 1954.

The Royal Engineers Journal. Memoir – Sir Robert Hanbury Brown, K.C.M.G., R.E. The Institution of Royal Engineers, Chatham, September 1926.

[1] The London Gazette, 7 January 1870.

[2] The London Gazette, 2 August 1872.

[3] Family tree and Medal Index Card.

[5] The London Gazette, 10 January 1882.

[6] The London Gazette, 1 July 1888.

[7] The London Gazette,1 April 1890.

[8] The London Gazette, 11 January 1898.

[9] The London Gazette, 3 April 1900.

[10] The London Gazette, 21 December 1902.

[11] The London Gazette, 2 May 1893.

[12] A barrage is a type of low-head, diversion dam which consists of a number of large gates that can be opened or closed to control the amount of water passing through. This allows the structure to regulate and stabilize river water elevation upstream for use in irrigation and other systems.

[13] Photo discovered in an album of Judith MacBeth's father. Presumably it was taken some time during the time he served in the RAF in Egypt for 5 years until December 1934. (hmacbeth@tiscali.co.uk).

[14] The Telford Medal is a prize awarded each year by the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) for a paper or series of papers of significant value to the profession of civil engineering.

[15] This is an unknown currency that the author has failed to find in any reference. Presumably it may have been the forerunner of the Egyptian Pound.

[16] The London Gazette, 1 September 1916.

[17] The London Gazette, 4 May 1918.

[18] The London Gazette, 5 September 1918.


Figure 6. History Of The Barrage At the Head Of The Delta of Egypt (1896).	Figure 7. Irrigation.

Figure 8. The Fayum and Lake Moeris.	Figure 9. The Land of Goshen and The Exodus.