Walter George Brown

Reverend Walter George Brown (September 6, 1875 – April 1, 1940) was a Presbyterian Church in Canada minister who opposed the formation of the United Church of Canada and was a United Reform Movement MP in the House of Commons of Canada.

Early life Born in Athelstan (now Hichinbrooke), Huntingdon County, Quebec of Scots-Irish parents, Brown initially decided to become a lawyer and was educated at McGill University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1899 with first class honours.

At the 1925 General Assembly, Brown was one of 79 Commissioners who refused to join the United Church, and met in a corner of Toronto's College Street United Church at the conclusion on June 9 in order to resume business later that night at nearby Knox Presbyterian Church and legally claim their continuity.

Political career He remained in Saskatchewan throughout the Dust Bowl drought years of the Great Depression and, late in the decade, organized the left-wing United Reform Movement as a political party calling for relief.

Brown was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Saskatoon City in a December 1939 by-election, spent one day in Parliament before dissolution, was re-elected two months later in the 1940 general election with the support of both the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Tory National Government party, but died of complications from a heart attack, a few days after his victory. He was not able to travel from Ottawa to his riding to campaign.

Agnes MacPhail, who introduced Brown to the floor of the House of Commons on 25 January 1940, was eventually recruited by the URM to succeed him, but she was defeated in the subsequent by-election later that year.

Later Presbyterian career Brown left Red Deer later that year to oversee the re-organization of some Presbyterians in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan that had voted against joining the United Church. St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Saskatoon was formed under his pastoral leadership, and remains the largest PCC congregation within the province.

In June 1931, he was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, and during his Moderatorial year, travelled to Asia, and visited Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and the Manchuria portion of China.

Reverend Walter George Brown is one of the few Moderators of the Presbyterian Church who was or is not a Reverend Doctor; he refused to accept Honorary Doctorates from his alma mater, nor Toronto's Knox College. He died on April 1, 1940, out of heart attack while in office and the funeral took place in Ottawa, and is buried at the Athelstan Presbyterian Cemetery.