Francis Humphris Brown was the thirteenth child of John Humphris Brown and his wife, Elizabeth, who operated trading steamers along the Murray and Darling Rivers. He was educated at Sydney's Fort Street High School and as a young man was employed as an engineer in the New South Wales Railways and Tramways Department. During World War I he refused to enlist and opposed the 'War Madness.' He also took an active part in the Railway and Tramway Strike of 1917 and, as a result, suffered a nervous breakdown. Upon his recovery, Francis Brown relocated from Sydney to Bourke where he remained for sixteen years. During these years he resurrected his youthful ambition to become a writer, becoming well-known in the New South Wales Far West for recitals of his work. In January 1933 he returned to Sydney to arrange for the publication of his Selected Work, Songs of the Plains, q.v., but fearing a recurrence of his mental condition, returned to Bourke, and within a week was dead.
