page_title: Ernest William Brown
section_title: Private life
hierarchical_section_title: Ernest William Brown / Life and career / Private life
caption_attribution_description: English: British Association members of the voyage around Africa 1905 Original caption: Some of the Members on the 'Saxon' before the ship left Southampton. In the top row, reckoning from the right, may be seen Prof, and Mrs. Herdman, Prof. Forsyth, Mr. Freshfield, Sir R. Jebb, Sir W. Wharton, Dr. Murray; in the second row, Dr. Haddon, Professor Perry, Sir W. Crookes, Sir L. Brunton, Major Macmahon, Mrs. Darwin; in the third row, the writer, Professor Darwin and Professor Sollas.
context_page_description: Ernest William Brown FRS was an English mathematician and astronomer, who spent the majority of his career working in the United States and became a naturalised American citizen in 1923.
  His life's work was the study of the Moon's motion and the compilation of extremely accurate lunar tables. He also studied the motion of the planets and calculated the orbits of Trojan asteroids.
context_section_description: Brown never married, and for most of his adult life lived with his unmarried younger sister, Mildred, who kept house for him. She made it her job to shield him from "cares and disturbances" and succeeded in "utterly spoiling him." In his youth, he was a keen rower and mountaineer. He was a capable pianist and continued to play until a few years before his death. He remained fond of music and was for a time the head of the New Haven Oratorio Society. Brown also played chess to a high standard and loved detective stories.
  He enjoyed travelling and frequently crossed the Atlantic between the United States and Great Britain. With several professional colleagues, he was also an enthusiastic participant in the British Association's extended visit to South Africa and other parts of southern and eastern Africa between July and October 1905.
  His daily routine was unusual, and was described as follows:
  He was in the habit of going to bed early and as a consequence woke up between three and five o'clock in the morning. After having fortified himself with strong coffee from a thermos bottle he set to work without leaving his bed, smoking numerous cigarettes. His serious scientific work was thus done before he got up for breakfast at nine o'clock.
caption: British Association members on the voyage to South Africa, 1905. Brown is seated at bottom right.
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