Background
He was shot down over enemy territory and spent 18 months as a prisoner of war in Germany. After his repatriation in 1917 he was employed in the Ministry of Munitions on production of airplane engines. In 1919 he met John William Alcock, a pilot who was preparing to fly across the Atlantic in an attempt to win the prize of £10,000 offered by the London Daily Mail. Brown joined him as navigator. They took off from St. John's, Newfoundland, on June 14, 1919, in a twin-engine Vickers-Vimy biplane; 16 hours and 12 minutes later they landed in Clifden, Ireland, the first men to fly nonstop from America to Europe. They were both knighted by King George V that same year.