Mary Elizabeth Brown

Mary Elizabeth Brown (21 January 1862 – 1 May 1952) was one of the first women graduates of the University of Sydney.

Early life The daughter of Rev. Dr. George Brown, D.D., F.R.G.S. (1835–1917), and Sarah Lydia Brown (1838–1923), née Wallis, Mary Elizabeth Brown was born in Savaiʻi, Samoa in 1862, and lived her early years in Samoa. Her father, a Methodist missionary who had moved to Samoa in 1860, was also a collector of artifacts; and part of his collection is exhibited at the National Museum of Ethnology, in Osaka, Japan. Elizabeth, the second of seven children, was born and lived her early years in Samoa.

She was sent, together with her eldest sister Amy, to her grandparents in Auckland, New Zealand, for her education, becoming one of the first pupils at the Auckland Girls' High School which opened in 1877, and when the Browns moved to Sydney in January 1881, she entered the ladies' college, the Argyle School, in Albion Street, Surry Hills, as a pupil. and was cremated at the Rookwood Crematorium on 2 May 1952.

Legacy The Brown Fellowship at the University of Sydney The Equity fellowships were introduced by the university in 2009. The Brown Fellowship is one of these, named after Mary Elizabeth Brown. The aim of the Brown Fellowships is to assist university researchers, both male and female, whose careers have been interrupted by the undertaking of sustained primary caring duties. The Brown fellowship provides substantial relief from teaching and administrative responsibilities and allows Fellows to focus on their research while re-establishing or enhancing their academic research careers.