He was educated at Murton, where his parents lived,[1] then Ryhope Grammar School and St John's College, Oxford.
He served with the Royal Artillery 1942–45 and joined the Diplomatic Service in 1949.
After serving at Buenos Aires and at the UK mission to the United Nations in New York, in 1960 he was appointed consul in Vientiane, Laos,[2] and deputy to the ambassador (John Addis).
He later wrote a memoir of his experience of the Laotian Civil War, including a month spent as a prisoner of the Pathet Lao.
[9] Sir Mervyn Brown died on 28 September 2023, four days after his 100th birthday.