Background
Brown was the son of Colonel James Clifton Brown, grandson of Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet. His mother was Amelia (née Rowe) while Howard Clifton Brown was his elder brother.
Brown was the son of Colonel James Clifton Brown, grandson of Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet. His mother was Amelia (née Rowe) while Howard Clifton Brown was his elder brother.
He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.
He served as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1943 to 1951. Brown was a lieutenant in the Lancashire Artillery when on 26 March 1902 he was commissioned a second-lieutenant in the 1st Dragoon Guards, serving in South Africa during the end of the Second Boer War. He advanced to major in the regiment, and later became a lieutenant-colonel in the Volunteer force.
He was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons from 1938 to 1943 and Speaker of the House of Commons from 1943 to 1951.
He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1941 and raised to the peerage as Viscount Ruffside, of Hexham in the County of Northumberland, in 1951. Lord Ruffside married Violet Cicely Kathleen Wollaston, daughter of Frederick Eustace Arbuthnot Wollaston, in 1907.
There were no surviving male issue from the marriage. Lord Ruffside died in May 1958, aged 78, when the viscountcy became extinct.
The Viscountess Ruffside died in November 1969, aged 87.
31st United Kingdom Parliament. 32nd United Kingdom Parliament. 34th United Kingdom Parliament.
35th United Kingdom Parliament.
36th United Kingdom Parliament. 37th United Kingdom Parliament.
38th United Kingdom Parliament. 39th United Kingdom Parliament]
Brown was Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Hexham from 1918 to 1923 and from 1924 to 1951.