Brown was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, the son of Frank and Caroline Brown. He attended King James's School in Almondbury and Rossall School in Lancashire before entering the family business, David Brown and Sons, in 1921 at the age of 17, beginning as an ordinary apprentice and cycling six miles to work each morning. The company, founded by his grandfather, specialised in transmission components and gear manufacture.
Despite his father showing no interest in motor vehicles, Brown became a keen motorcyclist from an early age. He acquired a powerful Reading Standard 1000cc V-twin motorcycle in place of the docile machine his father intended to buy him, modified its engine for improved performance, and raced it in hillclimb competitions at Axe Edge Moor and Sutton Bank. He achieved the fastest time of the day at Axe Edge Moor and was invited as a reserve rider for the Douglas motorcycle team at the Isle of Man TT, though his father ultimately forbade him from competing.
Brown designed a 1.5-litre twin-cam straight-eight engine and began constructing his own car in his bedroom, later building a chassis fitted with a Sage 2-litre engine that he called the Daybro. His family firm's gear-grinding expertise brought early connections with A C Bertelli of Aston Martin, and he also modified a Vauxhall for Amherst Villiers that won its class at Shelsley Walsh three consecutive years.
Brown rose through the company from foreman to assistant works manager. After his uncle Percy's death in 1931 he was appointed joint managing director the following year and became managing director in 1933.
In 1936 Brown formed the Ferguson-Brown Company with Harry Ferguson, building tractors in a corner of Park Gear Works. The two men disagreed over design details, leading Brown to develop his own tractor independently, the David Brown VAK1, which was introduced in 1939 and ultimately sold more than 7,700 units. Ferguson subsequently went to America and concluded a separate manufacturing agreement with Henry Ford.
During the Second World War, David Brown Ltd greatly expanded production of gears and gearboxes for military equipment, generating significant wealth that Brown later directed toward his automotive ambitions.
In late 1946 Brown noticed a classified advertisement in The Times offering a high-class motor business for sale at £30,000. The company proved to be Aston Martin. After visiting the firm's headquarters at Feltham and test-driving the new prototype Atom, Brown judged the handling promising despite feeling the 2.0-litre four-cylinder pushrod engine lacked power. He acquired the company in February 1947 for £20,500 and immediately began converting the Atom prototype into a production car. Preferring open cars to saloons, he redesigned the chassis to accommodate an open top, creating the basis for the Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports.
In 1947 Brown learned that Lagonda was in financial trouble and approaching insolvency. When a liquidator was appointed, Brown visited the company and met engine designer W. O. Bentley, who showed him a modern twin-cam 2,580cc six-cylinder unit he had been developing. Brown recognised its potential for his next generation of Aston Martins. Although he knew his bid would be the lowest, he submitted an offer, and with competing bidders having withdrawn in difficult post-war economic conditions, he acquired the rights to the Lagonda company and the new engine for £52,500. The engine entered service in the Aston Martin DB2.
In 1955 Brown acquired the coachbuilder Tickford and subsequently consolidated all Aston Martin and Lagonda manufacturing at Tickford's premises in Newport Pagnell, which remained the home of Aston Martin production for decades.
The series of Aston Martin cars bearing Brown's initials — the DB1 through the DBS — became among the most admired British sports cars of the postwar era. From the DB1 of 1948 through to the DBS of 1967–1972, these cars combined elegant coachwork with increasingly capable engines and established Aston Martin's international reputation. Brown himself used a Jaguar XJ as personal transport, finding it more economical to run than the cars he made.
In 1963 the David Brown Corporation acquired a controlling interest in the British shipbuilder Vosper and Company, with Brown becoming chairman. The company later merged with John I. Thornycroft and Company to create Vosper Thornycroft in 1966. When the Labour government nationalised the warship-building division in 1977, Brown left Britain and retired to Monte Carlo, embittered by the nationalisation.
In February 1972, before this development, the David Brown Corporation had faced financial difficulties and the board forced Brown to sell the tractor division to Tenneco International and Aston Martin Lagonda to a separate buyer. The new Aston Martin owners dropped the DB designation, which was not restored until 1994 under Ford ownership with the DB7. Walter Hayes, chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, invited Brown to serve as Honorary Life President of the company, a role he accepted.
Brown sold his shares in the David Brown Corporation in January 1990 for £46 million but retained an honorary link with the business.
Brown married Daisy Muriel Firth in 1926 against his parents' wishes. They had two children, David and Angela; Angela married racing driver George Abecassis. Following his divorce from Daisy, Brown married his secretary Marjorie Deans in 1955, a marriage that also ended in divorce. He later married his personal assistant Paula Benton Stone in 1980.
Away from industry Brown played polo, hunted with the South Oxford hounds as joint Master, and bred hunters and racehorses on a 700-acre farm in Buckinghamshire. His racehorse Linwell won the 1957 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He was a qualified pilot with his own De Havilland Dove and established a personal airfield at Crosland Moor. Brown was knighted in 1968 for services to industry. He died in Monte Carlo in September 1993, aged 89.
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