Brown, Gertrude (1879–1974)

Gertrude Brown, M.D., was one of the longest-serving medical practitioners in the United Kingdom. Despite ill-health, Dr. Brown lived a life of service as a teacher, nurse, and medical doctor specializing in end-of-life care.

Early Life and Conversion

Dr. Brown was born Gertrude Maud Wright to Charles and Susan Wright on December 14, 1879. The youngest of eleven children, Wright grew up in a small village in the county of Essex, England, and received a good education despite being boisterous.¹ At age eleven, Wright’s family moved to London, where her mother and sisters converted to Seventh-day Adventism. Wright’s attitude towards study changed after the move, and she began to excel at school. Although initially resistant to the new religious ideas, she eventually sought out literature on the Sabbath and baptism. Wholly convinced at age 14, Brown adopted these beliefs for herself and was baptized by W. A. Spicer and E. J. Waggoner.²

Education and Early Career

In 1893 Wright received a scholarship to attend a prestigious school in London’s West End, but she was not accepted because she would not attend classes on Saturday. The trustees were impressed by her stand and found another school that would honor the scholarship.³ Two years later, Wright graduated and traveled to Basel, Switzerland, where she cared for the family of the SDA Conference’s president. This was a particularly trying episode in Wright’s young life. Still, she persisted and, in June 1897, began nurse training at the Basel Sanitarium at the age of 17.⁴ Her sister Annie joined her. Both graduated with diplomas in 1899, despite Gertrude’s ongoing health problems.⁵ During this time, she met Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who invited her to work at Battle Creek, but it was 26 years until this plan would be fulfilled.

From 1900 to 1904, Wright taught in London, but the work triggered a rapid decline in her health. She was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and likely would have died without the intervention of Dr. Kellogg, who recommended Wright be moved to a sanitarium in Ireland. Under the care of Dr. J. J. Bell, who had trained at Battle Creek, and with much prayer, she escaped a near brush with death.⁶ Wright stayed on in Ireland to work under Dr. Bell’s watchful eye.

Marriage and Medical Ministry

After a short courtship with a fellow nurse, Edwin “Ted” Brown, Gertrude married in 1906.⁷ The couple eventually moved back to London. The London City Council employed Brown to educate young mothers, a role she performed with great care and grace.⁸ In 1916, Brown was appointed the Matron of Stanboroughs Hydro in Watford, Herefordshire. She held this post until 1922 when she finally joined Dr. Kellogg as Matron of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.⁹ The Browns flourished during the Battle Creek years and returned to the United Kingdom only after being encouraged to pursue their medical degrees in Edinburgh.¹⁰ Gertrude Brown continued to work at Battle Creek during her breaks to pay for her studies, with one biographer noting: “She crossed the Atlantic no fewer than fourteen times during those hard years of study.”¹¹

After Gertrude and Ted had both graduated with medical degrees, the couple opened a small hospital and nursing home in Loanhead, Edinburgh, where they worked through the war years.¹² In 1945, the couple purchased a property in Crieff, where they continued their life’s work, specializing in end-of-life care.¹³ They toiled together at Akaroa, the original Crieff nursing home, until Ted’s health failed; he died in 1966.¹⁴ The following year, the British Union Conference took over Akaroa, but Dr. Brown continued to serve as the medical director.¹⁵ In 1970 a second property, ‘Roundelwood’, was purchased to extend the medical ministry.¹⁶ Financial reports show that the work continued to flourish under Dr. Brown’s leadership, with the faithful support of long-standing colleagues such as Mrs. J. Cunningham, who was originally a patient, but stayed on as staff for 36 years.¹⁷ Further extensions were enabled by the generous patronage of Sir James Donald, a New Zealander who admired the progressive health ministry.¹⁸

Final Years and Death

At the age of 92, Dr. Brown published her autobiography, I Have Lived, and traveled to both Australia and New Zealand, where she shared her testimony.¹⁹ Her last address was made to youth at the Edinburgh Congress in 1973.²⁰ Having worked until the age of 93, Dr. Brown passed to her rest on January 2, 1974, and was laid to rest beside her husband in the Crieff Cemetery.²¹ Her life and ministry exemplified her belief of the Adventist health message; despite ongoing medical problems, Dr. Brown defied expectations to live a full, industrious, humble life of service to the people of the United Kingdom and beyond.

Sources

Bell, G. Martin. “50 Years of Caring.” Messenger, February 16, 1996.

Brown, Gertrude Maud. I Have Lived. Grantham, UK: Stanborough Press, 1973.

Douglass, Herbert E. “Dauntless Doctor Brown.” ARH, January 10, 1974.

Elias, Nan. “Preliminary to Crieff’s Great Day.” British Advent Messenger, August 5, 1977.

Kinman, Bernard F. “Britain’s Senior Worker.” British Advent Messenger, December 19, 1969.

Kinman, Bernard F. “Till the Day Dawn.” British Advent Messenger, January 18, 1966.

Kinman, Bernard F. “Dr. Gertrude Brown.” British Advent Messenger, February 8, 1974.

Parr, R. H. “Flashpoint.” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, July 31, 1972.

Roth, Arthur H. “Church Stalwart from Scotland.” ARH, November 9, 1969.

Vine, R. D. “Goodbye to Britain’s Senior Worker.” British Advent Messenger, February 8, 1974.

Vine, R. D. “Sanitarium Work Still Onward.” British Advent Messenger, April 9, 1971.

Notes

1. Gertrude Maud Brown, I Have Lived (Grantham: Stanborough Press, 1973), 21.↩

2. Herbert E. Douglass, “Dauntless Doctor Brown,” ARH, January 10, 1974, 9.↩

3. Brown, I Have Lived, 36-37.↩

4. Ibid., 48.↩

5. Bernard. F. Kinman, “Britain’s Senior Worker,” British Advent Messenger, December 19, 1969, 1.↩

6. Brown, I Have Lived, 62-70.↩

7. Bernard. F. Kinman, “Till the Day Dawn,” British Advent Messenger, January 18, 1966, 15.↩

8. Bernard F. Kinman, “Dr. Gertrude Brown,” British Advent Messenger, February 8, 1974, 7.↩

9. Bernard. F. Kinman, “Britain’s Senior Worker,” 1.↩

10. Ibid.↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. Nan Elias, “Preliminary to Crieff’s Great Day,” British Advent Messenger, August 5, 1977, 2.↩

13. Herbert E. Douglass, “Dauntless Doctor Brown,” ARH, January 10, 1974, 9.↩

14. Kinman, “Till the Day Dawn,” 15.↩

15. Arthur H. Roth, “Church Stalwart from Scotland,” ARH, November 9, 1969, 17.↩

16. G. Martin Bell, “50 Years of Caring,” Messenger, February 16,1996, 1.↩

17. Kinman, “Dr. Gertrude Brown,” 7.↩

18. R. D. Vine, “Sanitarium Work Still Onward,” British Advent Messenger, April 9, 1971, 5.↩

19. R. H. Parr, “Flashpoint,” Australasian Record and Advent World Survey, July 31, 1972, 16.↩

20. R. D. Vine, “Goodbye to Britain’s Senior Worker,” British Advent Messenger, February 8, 1974, 1.↩

21. Kinman, “Dr. Gertrude Brown,” 7.↩