Joseph Brown CBE (26 September 1930 – 15 April 2020) was an English mountaineer who was regarded as an outstanding pioneer of rock climbing during the 1950s and early 1960s.

In his autobiography, The Hard Years, Brown remembered being banned from the Scouts for refusing to go on a church parade and recalled how he began exploring the countryside: camping out, playing and climbing in old quarries.

[4][5] In Hard Rock,[6] Ken Wilson said of Brown: "The reader may gain some idea of his ability by studying those of his climbs featured in this book.

He has brought to climbing a rare combination of attributes: keenness, patience, strength, technical ability, eye for a line, competitiveness and, above all, a subtle and mysterious charisma.

[8] Brown established a number of new routes in Snowdonia and the Peak District that were at the leading edge of the hardest grades.

Examples on Dinas Cromlech in the Llanberis Pass include "Cenotaph Corner" (1952, graded E1, with Doug Belshaw) and "Cemetery Gates" (1951, E1, with Don Whillans).

[12] Throughout his climbing career Brown was involved in films such as Hazard,[13] Upside Down Wales,[14] Five Days One Summer, in which he and other British climbers assisted with the mountaineering scenes.

[16] Brown is remembered for televised rock climbs in the 1960s, three in Snowdonia, and in 1967, a spectacular new route on the Old Man of Hoy, a Scottish sea stack, with Ian McNaught-Davis and Chris Bonington, which was broadcast live by the BBC.