Mrs Elizabeth Catherine Brown (née Ford) was born around 1868 ¹ in the Cape Colony, South Africa. Her parents were Frank Edward Murray (b. around 1842 or 1846 in Cape Town, d. 1884) and Charlotta Hendrika (b. 1844 in Malmesbury, South Africa; nee Grief or Greeff; d. 21 September 1880) Ford. Her parents had married 9 January 1866 at Swartland, Morreesburg, in the Cape Province in the Dutch Reformed tradition. After the death of Charlotta Hendrika, her father married Engela Jacoba Wilhelmina du Toit (b. 1862) 10 January 1882 at Boshof, Free State, South Africa. Her father passed away 29 May 1884 at Potchefstroom, Transvaal, South Africa.

Elizabeth had four known brothers and sisters; Edward Stranson, b. February 1868 (later a gold miner, d. 11 June 1929) Hendrik Gabriel (b. 1869, d. 18 March 1953), Sarah Jane, b. 1870 (later Mrs. Louw d. 23 January 1931), and Johanna Catharina (d. 19 June 1972), albeit there may have been two additional siblings who died in infancy; Frank Murray, and Charlotta Hendrika.

She married widower Thomas William Solomon (listed as a storekeeper) on 11 August 1890 at St. Mary’s Church in Woodstock, Western Cape, South Africa, apparently in the Church of England tradition. They had two children; Edith Eileen, b. 1896, and Dorothy Beatrice, b. 1899 (d. 16 October 1906; diphtheria).

In 1906, the Brown family lived at Mountain View Hotel in Long Street, Cape Town.

Mr Brown later worked as a Hotelier, but it seems business had declined and they decided to move to America.

The family boarded the Titanic at Southampton as second class passengers (ticket number 29750 for £39).  Elizabeth, Edith and two other Ladies, occupied a four-berth cabin; Thomas was accommodated elsewhere.

After the collision with an iceberg, Thomas placed Elizabeth and Edith in lifeboat 14 and stepped back, smoking a cigar and awaiting his fate.

Mrs Brown and her daughter were rescued by the Carpathia. They stayed in New York for a while and then travelled on to Elizabeth's sister, Mrs. Acton, at 2400 9th Avenue in Seattle.  Soon after they returned to South Africa.

Mrs. Brown married a Mr. Parrott and moved to Salisbury, Rhodesia (today Harare, Zimbabwe), where she passed away on 29 June 1925, due to heart failure, purportedly aged 54.