Father
Frank Browne SJ
Photographer
1880
– 1960

Frank
Browne was born in Cork in 1880. He attended Belvedere College and Castleknock College in Dublin, and, on leaving in 1897, set
out on the Grand Tour of Europe. When he returned to Ireland, he joined the Jesuits and
spent three years in the Royal University in Dublin where one of his classmates was
James Joyce, a fellow Belvederian.
Frank
studied philosophy in Italy 1903 – 1906, and returned to Belvedere College to teach for five years. He
studied theology in Milltown Park in Dublin from 1911 to 1916, and, in April
1912, he was given by his uncle Robert (the Bishop of Cloyne)
the present of a ticket for the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic, sailing from Southampton to Cherbourg to Cobh.
While
on board, an American millionaire offered to pay Frank’s way for the remainder
of the voyage to New York, but his Jesuit Superior
refused permission brusquely in a telegram: “Get off that ship – Provincial”.
However, while on board, Father Frank Browne had taken the last photographs of
the Titanic and Captain Edward Smith, and these were printed in newspapers around
the world following the disaster.
In
1916, following his ordination to the priesthood the previous year, Frank
volunteered for service as chaplain to the Irish Guards. He served on the
Western Front during the First World War, and rose to the rank of Major. He was
wounded five times and awarded the Military Cross and Bar,
and the Belgian Croix de Guerre, for his bravery.
After
the war, he returned to Dublin and Belvedere College and in 1922 was appointed
superior of Gardiner Street Church. Always dogged by poor health,
it was thought that he might benefit by a stay in a warm climate and so he
travelled to Australia in 1924,
and over the next few years made a wide-ranging and extensive collection of
photographs of life in Australia, both in the city and the
outback.
On
returning to Ireland, in 1929 he became a member of
the Missions and Retreats staff in Ireland, and was based from the 1930s
until 1957 at Emo Court Co Laois which had become the
Jesuit novitiate St Mary’s. He took over 5000 photos at St Mary’s and in Co
Laois, illustrating both religious life and country life between 1930 and 1957.
He also photographed many other parts of Ireland during that time, and travelled
abroad. Father Frank Browne died in 1960 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. It is estimated that he took
over 42,000 photographs in his lifetime.
Father
Browne’s great collection of negatives was discovered by chance in a tin trunk by
Father E E O’Donnell SJ in 1986. Many were of poor
quality or were damaged, but a fine collection has now been assembled
, thanks to the expertise of David Davison and the generosity of the
Allied Irish Bank.
Link to
www.fatherbrowne.com
Link to
www.jesuit.ie