Elijah Brain was born in Fenton in 1842. He was educated at Fenton and Stoke National Schools and later attended the Fenton and Stoke Athenaeums to improve his education. By his wife Mary Julia he had two daughters and a son William Henry.

 

He began work as a jigger and mould runner at the Foley Pottery of Baker and Co., After leaving Barker & Co. he joined Robinson and Son (who operated the adjoining Foley China Works) and eventually became chief cashier and a partner in Robinson and Son.

Elijah Brain with other partners, A. B. Jones and W. Hawker, took over the business and works from Robinson's in 1885 but retained the trade name and marks of Robinson & Son until 1903 when they started to trade under the name E. Brain & Co.

 

Brain served as president of the English China Manufacturers Association. He was elected to the Fenton Local Board of Health in 1855 and was first chairman of the Fenton Urban District Council in 1894 and again in 1897.

 

He was instrumental in securing the erection of a bridge at Fenton railway station in place of the level crossing, and was one of the founders of the Fenton Nursing Institution. He was a strong Liberal and an advocate of tariff reform.

A member of the Fenton Education Committee from its inception and of the committee which helped to establish the Hanchurch Holiday Home pioneered by Millicent Duchess of Sutherland.

 

From 1875 Elijah Brain was a conductor of the Mount Tabor chapel choir and was also one of the founders of the Stoke Philharmonic Society. In 1878 he inaugurated the Fenton Children's Religious Services, with an annual festival at Fenton town hall. He served on the Stoke upon Trent school board. In 1910 he failed to gain election to the federated council of Stoke on Trent, trailing Phillip Elliot and John Shaw Coddard.

 

Elijah Brain died on 23 October 1910 and is buried at Fenton cemetery.