From: Hugh Casement
Dr (Robert) Charles BROWN, of Chatfield House, 103a London Road, Croydon; b. Nayland, Suffolk, 1867 May 3; d. 'Dainton', Coulsdon, Surrey, 1924 June 17 age 57. Is presumably the Robert Brown, b. "Reyland" 1867-68, who was educ. at Christ's Hospital, City of London,; Selwyn House, Cambridge, 1884 Oct. 10 (BA 1887, MB & BCh 1893). Senior house surgeon, Blackburn & East Lancashire Infirmary; lived in Diss, Norfolk, in 1901; Bexhill, Sussex, in 1903; practising in Croydon by 1904. Served in the Great War as Capt. in the RAMC. m. at the parish church, St Marylebone, London, 1902 Jan. 25, Sara or Sarah, widow of Dr Frederick Edmund Hubbard, LRCP, MRCSE, of Diss, 3rd and youngest dau. of the late William Weller of Amersham, Bucks., and his late wife Lydia, née Holloway. She is thought to be the Sarah whose birth was registered at Amersham 1853 ii (bapt. there June 15); she gave her age as 27 in 1881 but only 35 in 1891 and 44 in 1901.
Charles was the 3rd son (of six) of the Rev. James Taylor Brown, incumbent of Holy Trinity, Preston, Lancs., who d. 1875 aged 45, and his wife Rachel Frobisher Jones. His uncle was another Robert Charles, also known by his middle name, who was knighted after endowing a ward at Preston Royal Infirmary and a research institute.
Charles was very young when his father died; the latter had sold his house to the parish for use as a vicarage, and so of course the family had to move out to make way for his successor. Probably to a smaller house, certainly not such a grand address, and I also get the feeling his mother was rather a cold character, or else she took widowhood badly: for one reason or another she didn't provide a place that her children could feel was home, and as a result they went their separate ways and didn't keep up with each other.
I couldn't find Frederick's birth, but in the 1881 census he was 23, b. Margate, medical student, living with his widowed mother Martha, age 66, who was keeping a boarding house at 33 Dalby Square, Margate.
In The Times I found an announcement of his marriage to Sarah (the service conducted by her brother James), her nickname given as 'Pussie', though in our family she was known as Sadie. That's to say, very little has come down to me: the Browns were a taciturn lot, who didn't keep up with siblings, and in any case my grandfather (Charles' brother) was already in his 50s by the time my mother came along.
I also found Frederick's death at The Cedars in Diss. It seems that Sarah then took in a lodger, young Charles Brown (who may also have taken over the practice), and the following year they found themselves married! She was several years older than her first husband and considerably older than her second.
I haven't found her death; nor could I find a third marriage after 1924.
Hugh.