Brown, George (1906–37), communist and trade unionist, was born 5 November 1906 in Ballyhale, Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, son of Francis Brown, a farrier with the Manchester Railway Company and an active trade unionist, originally from Inistiogue, Co. Kilkenny, and Mary Brown (née Lackey), from Ballyhale, Co. Kilkenny. His parents lived in the Collyhurst–Harpurhey area of Manchester from the 1890s, but returned to Ireland to have their children; George was their fourth child born in Ireland. Reared in an Irish environment, he kept himself informed on Irish politics, and joined local Irish clubs where he took part in Irish music and dancing; he was also a keen sportsman. Having completed his education at the Smedley Road School, he worked for several local employers (among them Metropolitan-Vickers at Trafford Park and the Manchester corporation highways department) and for a time as a builder's labourer. Interested in politics from an early age, he cut his teeth politically in debates at the Queen's Park Parliament in Manchester. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in the aftermath of the general strike (1926), and in time became a well known local party spokesman. An active trade unionist, he was selected as a representative of the Altogether Union of Building Trade Workers on the Manchester and Salford trade council, serving as an official speaker of the council in 1934. He became involved in the unemployment demonstrations occasioned by the financial collapse of 1929, and during the 1931 general election stood as a replacement parliamentary candidate for the communist party. Though unsuccessful, he ran a vigorous campaign. He was then sent by the party to the Soviet Union, where he stayed for about a year; on return he became a full-time organiser with the Manchester and Salford party branch. He later stood for several municipal elections (unsuccessfully contesting the Openshaw and Collyhurst wards), and married his election agent Evelyn Mary Taylor. In February 1935 he was elected to the party's national executive.
In January 1937 he volunteered to fight with the international brigades in Spain. Having been initially placed in the commissariat in Madrid, he spent his weekends off in the trenches at Jarama, before requesting a transfer to the front. He was appointed political commissar of XV Brigade. Wounded at the battle of Brunete, he was shot dead between 6 and 9 July 1937 by a Nationalist officer as he lay by the side of the road. His pamphlet This our city: a programme for a modern Manchester was published after he left Britain; in Spain he contributed to the International Brigade organ Volunteer for Liberty. His letters home to political colleagues are included in Mick Jenkins's biographical pamphlet.