Article

James Sutherland Brown

Published Online January 29, 2008

Last Edited December 12, 2013

James Sutherland Brown, "Buster," soldier (b at Simcoe, Ont 28 Jun 1881; d at Victoria 13 Apr 1951). Brown joined the militia in 1896, transferred to the Royal Canadian Regiment in 1906, and served in a number of staff appointments overseas during WWI.

Brown, James Sutherland

James Sutherland Brown, "Buster," soldier (b at Simcoe, Ont 28 Jun 1881; d at Victoria 13 Apr 1951). Brown joined the militia in 1896, transferred to the Royal Canadian Regiment in 1906, and served in a number of staff appointments overseas during WWI. Of Loyalist stock, the outspoken Brown was deeply suspicious of the US and a champion of Canada's British heritage.

In the 1920s, as director of military operations and intelligence, he drafted Defence Scheme No 1, Canada's contingency plan for defence in a war between the British Empire and the US. The scheme was dropped in 1931 by the chief of the general staff, A.G.L. MCNAUGHTON, who knew the Americans would inevitably win such a war.

Brown commanded Military District 11 in BC from 1929 to 1933, when he retired following a clash with McNaughton over the administration of the unemployment relief camps managed by the Department of National Defence. He took refuge in Victoria, running unsuccessfully for office as a Conservative and railing against socialism and other "isms" which he considered disruptive of society.