Douglas Clifton Brown, 1st Viscount Ruffside

Brown was born on 16 August 1879. He was the fifth of ten children born to Amelia (née Rowe) Brown and Colonel James Clifton Brown, a Liberal Party Member of Parliament.[1] His maternal grandparents were Charles Rowe, one of the partners in the Liverpool firm Graham, Rowe & Co., and his Lima-born wife Sarah.[2][3] His elder brother was Howard Clifton Brown

His paternal grandparents were Alexander Brown and his wife Sarah Benedict Brown. His great-grandfather was the banker and merchant Sir William Brown, 1st Baronet, and his uncle was Liberal politician Sir Alexander Brown, 1st Baronet.

Brown was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.[4]

Clifton Brown was a lieutenant in the Lancashire Artillery when on 26 March 1902 he was commissioned a second-lieutenant in the 1st Dragoon Guards,[5] serving in South Africa during the end of the Second Boer War. He advanced to major in the regiment, and later became a lieutenant-colonel in the Volunteer force.

In 1907, Ruffside was married to Violet Cicely Kathleen Wollaston (1882–1969), daughter of Frederick Eustace Arbuthnot Wollaston.[10] They were the parents of one child:[11]

• Audrey Clifton Brown (1908–2002), who married Harry Hylton-Foster, who became Speaker of the House of Commons. Audrey was created a life peeress as Baroness Hylton-Foster in honour of her husband in 1965.[11]

Ruffside died in May 1958, aged 78. As there were no surviving male issue from the marriage, the viscountcy became extinct. His widow, the Viscountess Ruffside, died in November 1969, aged 87.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Douglas Clifton Brown
• Portraits of Douglas Clifton Brown at the National Portrait Gallery, London