| Sydney MacGillvary Brown | |
| Birth Date: | 1895 8, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Marblehead, Massachusetts, United States |
| Death Place: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Allegiance: | United Kingdom United States |
| Branch: | Royal Air Force United States Navy |
| Serviceyears: | 1917–1918 1942–1945 |
| Rank: | Lieutenant (RAF) Lieutenant-Commander (USN) |
| Unit: | No. 29 Squadron RAF |
| Battles: | World War I World War II |
| Awards: | Distinguished Flying Cross Croix de Guerre (France) |
| Laterwork: | Author and professor of medieval history |
Sydney MacGillvary Brown (10 August 1895 – 7 April 1952) was an American World War I flying ace, who later became an author and professor of medieval history.[1]
Brown was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he was member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.[2] He graduated in 1916, delivering an address at the commencement ceremony.[3]
Brown joined the Royal Flying Corps in July 1917,[4] and was appointed a temporary second lieutenant (on probation) on 12 January 1918.[1] On 4 July 1918, he was assigned to No. 29 Squadron, flying the SE.5a. He destroyed a Fokker D.VII on 12 August 1918, a DFW reconnaissance plane on the 19th, another Fokker D.VII on 28 September, an observation balloon on 27 October 1918, and a third D.VII on the 28th.[4] In February 1919 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His citation read:
Second Lieutenant Sydney MacGillvary Brown.
On 28 October, when on offensive patrol, this officer, in company with three other machines, attacked nine Fokkers; three of the latter were destroyed, 2nd Lieut. Brown accounting for one. In addition, he has three hostile aircraft and one balloon to his credit. He is a fearless and intrepid officer.
Brown returned to his academic career after the war, attending Oxford University.[1] In 1922 he was appointed Assistant Professor of History and Political Science at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,[5] where he taught for the next twenty years.[2] Brown was awarded a Master of Arts degree by Oxford in 1927, and received his PhD in 1937.[6]
During World War II Brown served in the United States Navy Reserve as an aerial navigation officer[1] in Britain and Italy,[2] with the rank of lieutenant-commander.[1]
In 1947 he was appointed an associate professor of medieval history at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. He died on 7 April 1952 at the Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh.[1]