Mary KennyFrancis Browne has been best known to the public as the extraordinary photographer who took the last pictures aboard the doomed Titanic – he had the luck, or perhaps was given the grace – to alight at Queenstown (Cobh) before she began her final trajectory across the Atlantic.
But Fr Browne SJ, also had another remarkable career – as one of the 32 Irish Jesuits who served as chaplains during the First World War.
He was given four military decorations for his battlefield courage and dedication to the wounded and dying: one from Belgium, one from France, and two from Britain. Earl Alexander of Tunis, the wartime leader – and be it remembered, a strong Ulster Protestant from Caledon in Co. Tyrone – described Fr Browne as “the bravest man I ever met”. (His medals are now on display at the Cobh Heritage Centre in Co. Cork.)
Francis Browne really was a most outstanding character, and as the very knowledgeable author Fr Eddie O’Donnell (who has devoted himself to the Browne Collection) emphasises, the photographer was also “a very holy man”.
He was born in Cork in 1880, the youngest of eight children: his mother, who was the niece of the Lord Mayor of Cork, died eight days after his birth and his father died in a swimming accident when he was just a young boy.
Fortunately, his uncle, Robert Browne, who was the Bishop of Cloyne, became a protective mentor to him, and when Frank was 18 he joined the Jesuits. He also spent three years at UCD with James Joyce, and had three years of philosophy study in Italy. So we can infer that his background was reasonably well-to-do and cultivated, and there always remained a strong association with Clongowes.
By 1916, he was serving as a chaplain to the Irish Guards on the Western Front, and like his friend and colleague, Fr Willie Doyle, he sent back vivid descriptions of life at the front – although despite the anguishing circumstances of the trenches, it’s clear Frank Browne is the kind of person who always tried to keep positive, and, indeed, to keep busy. He was wounded – quite severely – in the jaw, and had to take sick leave, but was keen to return to the front, which he did.
The Irish chaplains were superb on that battlefield because they kept their focus on bringing comfort to the men, and their families. Frank Browne wrote some very thoughtful and compassionate letters to the bereaved families, often described a soldier’s last hours in the most comforting terms, and remembering to send any personal effects back to the family. The spiritual consolation given by these chaplains was truly significant, and though many deaths during that terrible conflict were agonising, still, the priests always sought to bring the grace of the sacraments and always tried to ensure that a soldier did not die alone.
Francis Browne (who also had lung trouble) lived to be 80 years of age and during his long life took up to 42,000 photographs. His pioneering photography has justly been compared to that of the French artist Henri Cartier-Bresson. This authoritative volume provides a short but insightful biography, and also a unique photographic record of life on the front line, and elsewhere in France, Belgium and Germany.
Francis Browne left a fantastic archive and his memory is a very fine adornment to faith and fatherland.
For more information about the Fr Brown Collection visit The Irish Picture Library site where details of the collections and how to obtain prints for private use can be found. The collection is administered on behalf of the Irish Jesuits by Davison Associates, 69B Heather Road, Sandyford Industrial estate, Dublin 18; Tel: 01-295-0799; info@davisonphoto.ie