Francis M. Browne MC & Bar SJ (January 3, 1880 – July 7, 1960) was a distinguished member of the Jesuit order in Ireland and an avid photographer. The Military Cross ( MC) is the third level Military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993 other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order Events 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. Year 1880 ( MDCCCLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Events 1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death Year 1960 ( MCMLX) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order He is best known for his photographs of the RMS Titanic taken shortly before its sinking in 1912. Construction The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland
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Early life
Francis Patrick Mary Browne was born in 1880 in Cork, Ireland, the youngest of the eight children of James Browne and Brigid Browne (née Hegarty). Cork (Corcaigh is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland 's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world His mother, the daughter of Lord Mayor of Cork James Hegarty, died of puerperal fever eight days after Francis's birth. A mayor (from the Latin māior, meaning "greater" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government After the death of his father in a swimming accident at Crosshaven on the 2 September 1889, Browne was raised and supported by his uncle, Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, who bought him his first camera shortly before the younger man embarked on a tour of Europe in 1897. Robert Browne (6 November 1844 – 23 March 1935 was the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Cloyne in Ireland from 1894 to 1935 Browne was educated at the elite private secondary school, Belvedere College. Belvedere College SJ is a private Secondary school for boys located on Great Denmark Street Dublin, Ireland.
Upon his return to Ireland, Browne joined the Jesuits and spent two years in the novitiate. He then attended Royal University in Dublin where he was a classmate of James Joyce, who featured him as Mr Browne the Jesuit in Finnegans Wake. The Royal University of Ireland was founded in accordance with the University Education (Ireland Act 1879 as an examining and degree-awarding university based on the model of Dublin (ˈdʌblɨn/ /ˈdʊblɨn or /ˈdʊbəlɪn/, bˠalʲə aːha klʲiəh or cliə(ɸ is both the largest city and capital of Ireland. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Finnegans Wake is a fictional work by James Joyce, published in 1939 He then studied theology at the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy in Dublin from 1911 to 1916. Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective The Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy is an institution of higher education and research located in Dublin, Ireland. It was during this period that he received a present from his uncle; passage on the RMS Titanic from Southampton, England to Cork. Construction The Titanic was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland Southampton ( IPA /ˌsaʊθˈhæmptən/ is the largest city in the county of Hampshire, on the south coast of England England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
Aboard the Titanic
Browne travelled to Southampton via Liverpool and London, boarding the Titanic on the afternoon of April 10, 1912 in the company of the Lenox-Coyningham and Odell families. Liverpool ( is a City and Metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Events 879 - Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks. 1407 - the lama Year 1912 ( MCMXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting He was booked in cabin no. A24 on the Promenade Deck. Browne took dozens of photographs of life aboard Titanic on that day and the next morning; he shot pictures of the gymnasium, the Marconi room, the first-class dining saloon, his own cabin, and of passengers enjoying walks on the Promenade and Boat decks. He also captured the last known images of many crew and passengers, including Captain Edward J. Smith, gymnasium manager T. Captain Edward John Smith, RD, RNR ( 27 January 1850 &ndash 15 April 1912) was the captain of the RMS ''Titanic'' W. McCrawley, engineer William Parr, Major Archibald Butt, and numerous third-class passengers whose names are unknown. Major Archibald Willingham Butt ( September 26, 1865 – April 15, 1912) was an influential military aide to U
During his voyage on the Titanic, Browne was befriended by an American millionaire couple who were seated at his table in the liner's first-class dining saloon. They offered to pay his way to New York and back in return for Browne spending the voyage to New York in their company. Browne telegraphed his superior requesting permission, but the reply was an unambiguous "GET OFF THAT SHIP - PROVINCIAL". By a quirk of fate, the denial probably saved his life; few men in first class survived the sinking.
Browne left the Titanic and returned to Dublin to continue his theological studies. When the news of the ship's sinking reached him, he realized that his photos would be of great interest, and he negotiated their sale to various newspapers and news cartels. They appeared in publications around the world. Browne retained the negatives.
Although his photographs have been described as the Titanic Album of Father Browne and books about the photographs have been published in many languages which describe Brown as a priest, Browne had not yet been ordained at the time he photographed the Titanic.
Later life
After his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest on July 31, 1915, the 35-year-old Browne travelled to Europe to join the Irish Guards as a chaplain. Events 30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian 's forces but most of his army subsequently Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The Irish Guards ( Irish: Garda na hÉireann) (IG part of the Guards Division, is a Foot Guards Regiment of the British He served with the Guards until the spring of 1920. He served at the Battle of the Somme and at Locre, Wytschaete, Messines Ridge, Paschendaele, Ypres, Amiens and Arras in Flanders. The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, fought from July to November 1916 was among the largest battles of the First World War Flanders (Vlaanderen Flandre Flandern is a geographical region located in parts of present day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. He was injured five times during his war service, once severely in a gas attack, and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar for his valour in combat. The Military Cross ( MC) is the third level Military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993 other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to Browne took many photographs during his time in Europe; one, which he called Watch on the Rhine, is considered a classic World War I war photograph. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All He collected his war photographs in an album named Watch on the Rhine after his most famous photograph and distributed copies to his colleagues in the Guards.
After the war Father Browne returned to Ireland; in 1922 he was appointed superior of Gardiner Street Church in Dublin. Ill health dogged him, however; in 1924 it was thought that he would recover more quickly in warmer climes, and he was sent on an extended visit to Australia. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. He brought his camera along, photographing life aboard ship and in Cape Town, South Africa, where he broke his voyage. Cape Town (Kaapstad Xhosa: Ikapa) is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Browne's photographs from Australia covered a cross-section of life in the continent; he took pictures of farms, ranches, industries, new immigrants, and members of Irish religious orders who lived in Australia. On his way back to Ireland he visited Ceylon, Aden, Suez, Saloniki, Naples, Toulon, Gibraltar, Algeciras, and Lisbon, taking photographs of local life and events at every stop. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Aden (ˈeɪdən Arabic: عدن) is a city in Yemen, 170 kilometers east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Suez (السويس) is a Seaport town (population ca 497000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez, near the southern Thessaloniki (Θεσσαλονίκη), Thessalonica, or Salonica is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of Macedonia Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the Toulon ( Provençal Occitan: Tolon in classical norm or Touloun in Mistralian norm is a city in southern France and a large Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar Algeciras - Arabic: الجزيرة الخضراء is a port city in the south of Spain, and is the largest urban area on the Bay of Gibraltar Lisbon (Lisboa liʒˈboɐ is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. It is estimated that Browne took over 42,000 photographs during his life.
Father Browne became the Superior of St. Xavier's Church in Dublin upon his return. In 1929 he was appointed to the Retreats and Mission staff of the Irish Jesuits. His work entailed preaching at missions and religious retreats all over Ireland; as most of this work was necessarily performed on evenings and Sundays, he had considerable time to indulge in his hobby during the daytime. He took photographs of nearly every parish and town in Ireland, and also photographed much of London and East Anglia during his Church-related travels to England. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. East Anglia is often used as a shorthand for the Kingdom of the East Angles.
Francis Browne died in Dublin in 1960 and was buried in the Jesuit plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Glasnevin Cemetery ( also known as Prospect Cemetery, is the main Catholic Cemetery in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. His negatives lay forgotten for 25 years after his death; they were only found by chance when Father Edward E. O'Donnell, SJ, found them in a large metal trunk once belonging to Browne. O'Donnell brought the negatives to the attention of the features editor of The Sunday Times of London. The Sunday Times is a Sunday Broadsheet Newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The amazed editor called them "the photographic equivalent to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls".
The Irish Jesuit order, the owner of the negatives pursuant to Father Browne's will, engaged photographic restoration specialists David and Edwin Davison to attempt to preserve and catalogue the fragile and unstable negatives. The Davisons made copies of every negative and eventually also transferred every usable image to a computerized format for the edification and enjoyment of future generations.
Father O'Donnell has authored numerous books containing Browne's photographs on behalf of the Irish Jesuit order.
References
- Father Browne's Titanic Album: A Passenger's Photographs and Personal Memoir by Browne, Francis M. and E. E. O'Donnell; Wolfhound Press, 1996; ISBN 0-86327-598-2
- Father Browne's Australia by Browne and O'Donnell; Wolfhound Press, 1996; ISBN 0-86327-443-9
- Father Browne: A Life in Pictures by Browne and O'Donnell; Irish American Book Company, 1997; ISBN 0-86327-436-6
- Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy by John P. Eaton and Charles A. Haas; W. W. Newton & Company, 2nd edition 1995; ISBN 0-393-03697-9