[4] He played in The Football League for Notts County,[5] his only appearance coming in a heavy 9–1 defeat to Aston Villa in September 1888.

Brown "received his education at Nottingham High School" and took his first art lessons under a local tutor.

In 1886, Brown married Mia Edwards (1870–1931), also a painter, who had studied under Hubert von Herkomer at the Bushey School of Art in London.

[11] Mia "died suddenly in 1931",[3] and Brown ceased painting in 1942 due to encroaching blindness,[12] which became total by 1948.

[3] Brown lived a very long life passing away in 1955 at the age of 89 in the County of Norfolk in Eastern England.