A SEARCH has been launched to trace a lost painting of a First World War hero.

Oxford graduate Philip Brown spurned the chance of a high-flying academic career to move to the North-East in 1911 and run classes for miners.

A second lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry, he died in France in 1915 after he was shot through both thighs.

Despite Lt Brown’s repeated requests to be left behind, Private Thomas Kenny, a County Durham miner, crawled with his injured officer on his back for more than an hour to reach British trenches – bravery that won him the Victoria Cross.

After his death, Lt Brown’s mother presented a portrait and memorial plaque to be displayed in the North-East office of the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), then in Newcastle.

However, they have not been seen in 30 years. The search for the portrait is part of the WEA’s centenary activities.

Born in Beckenham, Kent, in 1886, Mr Brown graduated from Oxford University in 1909.

He was one of the first WEA tutors in the North-East, turning down an academic post that would have doubled his salary to continue teaching in pit villages.

At the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for the Army as a private.

He was eventually persuaded to become a second lieutenant, leading a unit including several men he had taught in his County Durham classes.

He was fatally wounded on November 4, 1915. His colonel wrote: “He was the most popular officer with both men and officers in the regiment, and his platoon were so angry that they could with difficulty be restrained from going out there and then to avenge his death.”

Nigel Todd, the WEA’s North- East director, said: “Philip Brown was evidently a terrific tutor and WEA pioneer, and like many of his contemporaries, put his social conscience above his own privileges and advantages. He really was one of that tragically lost generation whose contribution to civilisation was wiped out by the brutality of war.”

Anyone with information is asked to call 0191-212-6100.