Sir Thomas Brown, Kt (1915-2003)

Michael Rhodes

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Dec 17, 2003, 5:43:19 AM12/17/03

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Sir Thomas Brown, chairman, Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority,
1967-84, died 8 November, 2003. He was aged 88.

He was born 11 October, 1915, the son of Ephraim Hugh Brown, by his
wife Elizabeth, and was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical
Institution.

Career: Admitted a Solicitor, 1938; Member of the Royal Commission on
the National Health Service, 1976-79; Chairman, Eastern Health and
Social Services Board, Northern Ireland (formerly Northern Ireland
Hospitals Authority) 1976-1979.

Brown, of Portaferry, County Down, was knighted in 1974. He married in
1988, Dr Eleanor A. Thompson. No offspring.

--

Michael Rhodes
(Please remove x to e-mail me)

Bob Champ

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Dec 17, 2003, 4:35:40 PM12/17/03

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For a moment after reading the name, I thought you were talking about
Sir Thomas Browne, author of _Religio Medici_ and _Urne Buriall_.
Browne was a late seventeenth-century writer and physician, and I
wonder if any obituary of him ever appeared.

Does anyone know when the first obituaries were published?

Bob C.

migx73all...@yahoo.co.uk (Michael Rhodes) wrote in message news:<4e5e1d66.0312...@posting.google.com>...

Iceman

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Dec 17, 2003, 5:53:37 PM12/17/03

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"Bob Champ" <robertc...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:9d079b90.03121...@posting.google.com...

> Does anyone know when the first obituaries were published?

I suppose about the same time as newspapers began to be published (mid- or
late 18th Century).

Niles

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Dec 17, 2003, 7:22:41 PM12/17/03

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"Iceman" <isma...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Depends what you count as an obit -- do, eg, the Pyramids count?

n

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Bob Champ

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Dec 17, 2003, 10:13:10 PM12/17/03

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"Iceman" <isma...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<brqmpc$6b5n7$1...@ID-141167.news.uni-berlin.de>...

I suspect that mewspapers were around before then, Iceman. They can
be traced in England at least to the Restoration period, i.e., the
late 1600s; and even then I might be too conservative in my estimate.
Of course, early newspapers were nothing like our conception of a
newspaper. Even those in the late 18th century were filled mostly with
ship arrivals and departures, entertainment ads, lost and found
columns, court news (in England) and runaway slave notices (in the
U.S.) You may well be right, though, that obits only started appearing
in the mid- to late eighteenth century.

Bob C.

Michael Rhodes

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Dec 18, 2003, 4:48:40 AM12/18/03

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My local paper was founded in 1754 and the obits began then. Very
basic though.
"Esther, wife of Josiah Throup, baker of this town, dropt down dead on
Wednesday last."

The Kentucky Wizard

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Dec 18, 2003, 8:26:17 AM12/18/03

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Upon receiving news that Michael Rhodes had made the remarks
below, and after consultations with my Joint Chiefs of Staff,
being briefed by members of my Cabinet and telephone
conversations with various world leaders, I have come to the
following conclusions:

> My local paper was founded in 1754 and the obits began then.

Now, Michael, you know as well as I do that there were people
dying before that. ;-)~