Date of birth:

August 8th, 1920 (Fraserburgh/Aberdeenshire Scotland)

Date of death:

March 8th, 2000 (Brisbane/Queensland, Australia)

Nationality:

British

IAN Brown of Witchill, near Fraserburgh, won the MC three times when fighting in Burma in 1944 and 1945. Though few officers won three MCs during the Second World War and his achievement was even more remarkable for the fact that on the third occasion he had been recommended for a DSO (a near equivalent to a VC when awarded to an officer below the rank of major) was told it had been approved and he should begin wearing it immediately but was later informed that the quota of DSOs in the area had already been filled, he must replace it with the bar donating a third MC.

Ian Mitchell Brown, younger son of Alec and Marjory Brown, was born in Fraserburgh on August 8, 1920. His father was the factor to the 18th Lord Saltoun, Chief of the Clan Fraser, and his mother a former nurse who had been awarded the Croix de Guerre for distinguished conduct in France during the First World War.

Ian Brown, highly intelligent, had entered St Andrews University at the age of 16 and graduated just before the outbreak of war. A youthful athlete, he had also fenced for the university. Having enlisted in the army, he realised his ambition to serve with the Gurkha Rifles when in 1941 he was posted to the Fourth Battalion of the Fifth Gurkha Rifles. In 1943 his battalion was posted to Arakan, a coastal strip on the western side where there were very few roads and no railways but where the Japanese were firmly established with a view to launching an attack into India. Brown, then a captain, commanding ''D'' Company, decided to disrupt the Japanese plans by forming a guerrilla platoon of specially chosen men and launched them into patrols of 2 or 4 men at the Japanese outposts. The patrols lived in the jungle and when they encountered strong resistance were backed up by larger fighting patrols.

In January 1944, having located a strong enemy position, Brown and his company attacked it, firing every gun they had and shouting the battle cry ''Ayo Gurkhali'' (''The Gurkhas are upon you''). Although Brown was wounded in the shoulder at the outset, his men rushed on and took the strong point. He spent five months in hospital but the following June discharged himself without permission and with his arm still in plaster rejoined his unit.

The following February he used the same tactics to capture Pakoku on the Irrawaddy but was again wounded in the conflict. In spite of fanatical Japanese resistance, his men, inspired by his leadership, took the position. He was awarded his second MC for this operation.

The third MC came in July 1945 on the approach to Sittang, and his conduct was so outstanding he was recommended for the DSO in the field, as mentioned. In September 1945 when his regiment took the surrender of the Japanese forces in Bangkok he was presented with his sword by a Japanese general.

After the war, he went to law school, married and emigrated to Australia in 1958, where he died on March 8, 2000.

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• Photo 1: David Leigh
• - Military Citation 2.
  - Military Citation 1.
  - Replica Ghurka Memorial London .
  - Ian Brown | The Herald