Brown was an artist, known by caricature (Fitz, p267 in Tovey 2009) to be a Scot. He is listed in the 1901 Census as the 20 year-old artist/painter son of John Eccles Brown, an India Rubber Manufacturer, living on Porthminster Hill. From Census data (1901), however, he was stated to have been born in St Ives.

An H Brown is known to have attended the Falmouth School of Art in 1912, and to have submitted one work to the RA, but this may or may not be the same person. No further information is currently available at this time.