Jocelyn Brown

• Name — Jocelyn Brown • Birth Name — Doris Jocelyn Giles • Born — 13 August 1898 • Birthplace — Toowong • Died — 3 October 1971 • Place of death — Camden • Education — classes at Royal Art Society of New South Wales • Occupation — garden designer • Spouse — Alfred John Brown • Children — two sons

Brown was born in 1898 in the Brisbane suburb of Toowong. Her mother, Georginia Munro Hull, was an Australian and her father, Sydney Reynolds Giles, had been born in England. She was engaged in 1915 to Alfred John Brown who was from New Zealand, but he was then training in Sydney. In 1920 she married her fiance who was then employed as an assistant architect in England. They stayed in England during the 1920s and they were both inspired by the new town of Welwyn Garden City. In 1930 they were back in Australia where her husband took an interest in town planning. In 1933, she and Alfred had a joint exhibition of their paintings in George Street in Sydney. She was described as "Mrs A.J.Brown" in the Sydney Morning Herald where the writer noted their similar styles - although Jocelyn was less meticulous and more colourful. She was working as a commercial artist, but she was a serial garden designer and throughout the 1930s and during the war years she built a number of gardens for herself in different suburbs of Sydney.