Joan Hilary Brown (nee Newitt) was born on March 21, 1909 in Helensburg, Scotland. Like many of her peers she went by her middle name and was known to all as Hilary Brown. Upon completion of her school studies Brown studied French and German in Geneva and Frankfurt with the aim of becoming an interpreter. During her time at the University of Frankfurt (1929 -1932) Hilary met Harrison Brown, a journalist, who would become her lifelong partner.

In 1937 Brown’s book "Women Must Choose", a study of women in democratic, socialist, and fascist states was published. Brown undertook several lectures tours throughout the US to promote the book. She received a contract for a second book, "Half of Humanity", which was never published due to the publisher’s demands that the manuscript be diluted to make it more appealing for a female audience. The same year she moved permanently to Hornby Island, British Columbia, with Harrison Brown. Throughout the 1950’s Brown was a regular contributor to CBC Radio, producing broadcasts on an array of subjects.

Brown was to become an active member of the Hornby Island community and became a founder of many of the Island’s landmarks such as the Hornby Island Co-op, Hornby Island Credit Union, New Horizons, and the Heron Rocks Friendship Society.

In 1973, the governing New Democratic Party passed legislation to create an Island’s Trust to oversee the island’s located in the Strait of Georgia and Howe Sound. The following year Brown was appointed as the inaugural Director and Chair of the Islands Trust for a two year period.

The death of Harrison in 1977 did not slow Brown down. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s Brown embarked on a series of trips to China and produced an unpublished study "Tomorrow’s Ancestors" which examined the plight of the elderly. The venture was supported by the Canada Council and the National Film Board.

In 1991 Brown became one of the founders of the "Gulf Island Guardian" and in 1992 received the Governor General’s Medal in honour of the 125th anniversary of the confederation of Canada.

On September 28th 2007, at the age of the 98, Brown died on Hornby Island, her home of seventy years.

George Harrison Brown was born in Surrey, England, in 1893. Like many of his peers he went by his middle name and was known to all as Harrison Brown. In 1914, at the age of 21, he enlisted in the British Army and saw active service in France for the duration of the First World War. After the War he lived in London and Paris and became associated with the American Committee for the Outlawry of War. During this period he travelled extensively within Europe, working with the staff of the League of Nations and foreign ministries. The work of the Committee was wound up when the Kellogg-Briand Pact (Treaty of Paris, 1928), was enacted.

He then became a free lance journalist and writer, writing for the Evening Standard, the New Chronicle, the New Statesman, the Fortnightly Review, and numerous other publications, and also broadcasting several radio series for the BBC. He lived in Germany from 1929 to 1933, leaving several months after Adolf Hitler came to power and spent the next few years writing about the rise of fascism and made numerous lecturing tours to university campuses in the United States and Canada, under the auspices of The Institute of International Education.

In 1936-1937 he made an extensive journey through Scandinavia, the USSR, Japan, Korea, and China. In China he travelled to Sian where he interviewed the young Marshall Chang Hsueh Liang, two days before he infamously kidnapped Chiang Kai Shek and obtained from him a change in Kuomintang policy in order to unite the nation against the Japanese invasion. During this period Brown kept a detailed journal and took hundreds of photographs which chronicled his travels. This would later take the form of an unpublished manuscript.

In 1937 Brown moved permanently to Hornby Island, British Columbia, with his common law wife Hilary Brown, an accomplished author. Here they established the Heron Rocks Campsite which later became a Co-op. In 1940 Brown ran unsuccessfully as the candidate for the C.C.F. in the Comox - Alberni riding.

Brown became a Canadian citizen and continued to write articles and short stories. He died in September 1977 at the age of the 84.