Stephen Brown (colliery proprietor)

Stephen Brown (1869 – 19 November 1958) was an Australian company director, colliery proprietor and shipowner. From 1931 he was the senior partner of J & A Brown.

Biography

Brown was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, the youngest child of James Brown and Elizabeth (née Foyle).^[1] He attended Newington College, commencing as a boarding student in 1886.^[2] At this time he was already a boy of independent means as in 1877 his uncle, Alexander Brown had died leaving him a quarter of his £100,000 estate. In 1886 Brown's father handed over his coal interests to his four sons. His second brother, William (1862-1927), died leaving his estate to his brother, John, and sister, Mary Stephen Nairn.The family business was largely run by Brown's first brother, John (1850–1930), until his death in 1930. John Brown left the bulk of his estate, valued for probate at £640,380, to his general-manager Thomas Armstrong and to Sir Adrian Knox, as tenants in common, to carry on the firm during the lifetime of Stephen Brown. From 1931 Stephen Brown was the senior partner in, and a director of, J. & A. Brown & Abermain Seaham Collieries Ltd. He travelled the world widely^[3] and often with Alan Edwin Cooper,^[4] the general manager of the family firm.^[5] Brown was a keen fisherman and grew prize winning dahlias and chrysanthemums^[6] at Segenhoe Stud.^[7] In the city he lived at 153 Macquarie Street, Sydney. On his death in 1958 he was unmarried and left his estate, valued for probate at £149,977, to Sir Edward Warren.^[8]

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