Brigadier General James "Buster" Sutherland Brown CMG DSO (June 28, 1881 – April 14, 1951) was a Canadian military officer best known for drafting Defence Scheme No.

What is much less well known are Brown's substantial contributions in the area of planning and logistics during his service as a senior staff officer in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) on the Western Front during the First World War.

[1] His father, Frank August Brown, was a successful merchant in agricultural products who had close trading ties with the United States, was active in municipal politics and generally supported the reform policies of the Liberal Party.

When the Anglo-Boer War started in 1899 he was a corporal and wished to join the Canadian Contingent in South Africa, but was persuaded to complete his education as a teacher.

As a result of further courses as well as training at Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Brown qualified as a Permanent Force Officer.

[2] When the British Empire declared war on the Central Powers on August 4, 1914, Brown was a captain in The RCR attending the Staff College in Camberley, England.

Twenty days later, he was ordered back to Canada to assist in the massive logistical challenge of organizing, supplying and then transporting to England the 1st Canadian Division of the newly created CEF.

Brown served with distinction as a logistics staff officer in the CEF for the duration of the First World War, reaching the rank of temporary lieutenant colonel in May 1916 in The RCR.

In the Canadian context it was assumed that the British Empire would rally to the defense of its North American dominion, but that this mobilization would likely require some time to become effective.

However, the political realities in Canada in the early 1920s dashed any possibility of a Canadian army that would be sufficiently large and well equipped to have any realistic hope of succeeding in any surprise pre-emptive assault across the border, no matter how well planned and executed.

Brown's talents in logistics were applied again in the early 1930s during the Depression, when he was active in setting up and expanding an army-sponsored work camp system for unemployed men in British Columbia.

Brown retired in Victoria in June 1936 following years of escalating tensions with the national military command in Ottawa, most notably with McNaughton, his First World War colleague and former friend.