Gershom Browne

Gershom Onesimus Browne (8 August 1898 – 6 December 2000) was the last known Guyanese First World War veteran. He served in the 1st British West Indies Regiment and fought in the North African and Middle East theatres during the war.

Military career Browne is descended from the Loko people of Sierra Leone and was born in Guyana in 1898. He left his home in Bagotville to enlist in Georgetown without his mother's permission. He lied about his age to join up at the age of seventeen. Browne rose to become a sergeant and in 1918 captured a bridge held by 30 Turkish troops under a German officer. He was successful in preventing his men from shooting the prisoners outright.

At the end of the war Browne passed through the transit camp at Taranto, Italy, just after the 9th battalion of his regiment mutinied there over pay and conditions. He went on to serve in the garrison in Egypt. Browne died on 6 December 2000 at the age of 102. He was the last surviving Guyanese veteran of the First World War and is commemorated by a plaque on his former house.