George Brown: In his own words
The Early Years
and The Call
Masthead of the Darlington and Stockton Times
Image courtesy of the Darlington and Stockton Times.
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Emblem of the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
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Of his career his biographer says : He gradually won that singular confidence alike of rich and poor, which was perhaps the most noteworthy thing in his life. And it was not mere respect for his justice and kindness. He became known as a man of wide information and great aptitude in varied kinds of business. His shrewdness and ability in public affairs, his spirit of high, scrupulous, Christian honour, his enthusiasm for every good cause, and his tenacious perseverance in every work he took up, gradually became conspicuous to all ; and, though a man of singularly modest and retiring character, he insensibly came, by the simple gravitation of natural ability, to occupy a leading place in every movement affecting the industrial, intellectual, or moral well-being of his town. He originated the Darlington and Stockton Times, and was its first editor. He was one of the founders of the Mechanics' Institute, and for some years he was its secretary. He was secretary of the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway and the Eden Valley Railway, clerk to the Board of Health ; and in his later years was 'called' to the Bar in the Middle Temple. His services in that capacity were in constant requisition, and he soon won the reputation of an able and thoroughly upright lawyer, whilst a small handbook which he published on a subject which his railway experience had rendered of special interest to him, The Law of Common Carriers, is referred to as an authority. He was a very early riser. In the winter mornings books were his companions. He was, as a friend of his has described him to me, 'a devouring reader'; and he appeared never to forget what he read. In the summer he loved to spend his mornings in the open air, reading in the woods, cultivating his love of nature and of science. He gained an intimate knowledge of every nook and cranny for many a mile, and became thoroughly skilled in the botany and geology of the whole district. He once gave a course of lectures on the 'Wild Flora' of the district, when he had the flowers collected and arranged on a long table across the room, and beginning at one end, taking up the flowers one by one as he came to them, without a note of writing, and with the whole air of one talking out of the fullness of a mind that knew and loved them thoroughly, he described their structure, the functions of their different parts, and their medicinal or other properties ; and then wandered off now and then into beautiful digressions about their associations with poetry and mythology. His solicitude for the poor was evident, and his efforts to ameliorate their condition only ceased with his life. No man in the neighbourhood was so universally consulted ; men of every class looked to his calm, thoughtful judgment with singular confidence ; and no man was more ready to afford counsel, even, as was often the case, at great personal inconvenience.
