Matilda Jane Warland was the daughter of John Warland (1798- 1865) and Ann Marie Stickland (1797 - 1855) who married in 1818. Matilda married John Clifford Elmes (1827 - ?), the son of John Clifford Elmes, in 1853 and they had six children including Emma Ann Elmes (24 February 1857, Wareham, Dorset, England - 24 October 1941, Launceston, Tasmania).
Emma Elmes married Frank Styant Browne (10 July 1843 - 1938) in June 1882 in Wimborne, Dorset, and then they moved to Tasmania, Australia. They had the following children:
The following article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, (MUP), 2005
Frank Styant Browne pharmacist and photographer, and Emma Ann Browne (1857-1941), philanthropist, were husband and wife. Frank was born on 10 July 1854 at Norwich, Norfolk, England, son of George Browne, bookseller, and his wife Ann, née Styant. Educated at King Edward VI School, Norwich, Derby Grammar School and Westminster College of Pharmacy, Frank was apprenticed to a chemist and also studied at the Derby School of Art in the 1870s. He lived in London for a short time before marrying Emma Ann Elmes in the parish church, Wimborne, Dorset, on 22 June 1882. Born on 24 February 1857 at Wareham, Dorset, daughter of John Clifford Elmes, journeyman coachbuilder, and his wife Matilda, née Warland, Emma had been educated at a private school. The couple arrived in Hobart in November 1882. After working with H. T. Gould, a friend and fellow college student, next year Browne established a homoeopathic pharmacy in Elizabeth Street, in association with Dr Harry Benjafield. Later in 1883 he moved to Launceston, where he operated a homoeopathic pharmacy in Elizabeth Street, then in Fergusons Block, Brisbane Street, and from about 1887 until his retirement in 1932 at 112 Brisbane Street.
Browne's enthusiasm for photography led to the formation in 1889 of the Northern Tasmanian Camera Club. At the first meeting, held in his pharmacy, he was elected honorary secretary, a position he held for some twenty years. In June 1891 he photographed some of the first Australian demonstrations of sound recording on wax cylinders. Obtaining an X-ray plant in June 1896, in September he became the first in Tasmania to demonstrate X-ray photography successfully. A year later he demonstrated examples of three-colour photography to the N.T.C.C., in 1901 gave the earliest known Australian demonstration of a home movie projector and in 1905 took colour photographs, probably among the first to be produced in Australia. He won many photographic awards within Australia and overseas.
In 1890 Styant Browne (as he was generally known) had been elected to the northern council of the Pharmaceutical Council. President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Tasmania in 1906-07, he was a board-member for many years and an examiner in botany. He was appointed a justice of the peace on 21 December 1916. With the decline of impressionism in photography, he increasingly turned to painting as a spare time pursuit. For several years he was president of the Launceston Art Society.
Browne had helped to found the Homoeopathic Cottage Hospital, which opened at Launceston in 1900. He was honorary secretary until 1929, while Emma was a board-member from its inception to the time of her resignation in 1924. An untiring philanthropic worker, she was a founder of the Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital at Launceston, a life member of the Victoria League, a member of the Shakespearian Society, a reciter of Shakespearian plays and a writer of essays on ethical and political subjects. She was also one of the earliest members of the National Council of Women, sometime honorary secretary, vice-president and finally president for northern Tasmania.
Frank Warland-Browne of Launceston High School appeared in The Mercury (Hobert) on 1 January 1900, recording the results of examinations. In 1907, Frank 'supported the bridegroom as best man' at the wedding of George Perrin and Flossie Dawson in Launceston. He was a keen photographer, noted in the local newspapers from 1903 to 1909. Frank Warland Browne and Co became a well known retail outlet on Brisbane Street in Launceston by the mid 1910s. Frank was elected President of the East Launceston Bowling Club in September 1922 (Examiner, Launceston, 22 September 1938).
The Daily Telegraph (Launceston) of 25 February 1903 noted that 'Mr Frank Warland-Browne was awarded' (a certificate) for photography, while Mr F Styant-Browne took second place.
Frank Warland Browne passed his final examination as a pharmaceutical chemist in 1908, one of the first candidates to pass under the newly-constituted Pharmacy Board of Tasmania, according to the Daily Post (Hobart) of 28 December 1908.
The Examiner (Launceston) of 7 December 1911 recorded the marriage of Frank Warland-Browne, son of Mr F Styant-Browne of 'Wimborne', Lyttleton Street, Launceston, to Beatrice Gurney Pepper, daughter of Mr J W Pepper, of 'Hiawatha', York Street, Launceston on 15 November 1911. The Examiner (Launceston) noted that Frank's sister Kathleen was a bridesmaid, along with the bride's sisters Edith and Elsie Pepper.
Bevan Warland-Browne was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 1 July 1915.
Four of Frank Styant-Browne's sons served in World War I, one having also served in the Boer War.
Frank died on 17 April 1938 at his home at Launceston and Emma on 24 October 1941. Their children survived them, including Frank who was also a photographer. The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, holds a collection of Styant Browne's work.
Bevan Browne, stated to be the 'only son of Mr and Mrs F Warland Browne' of High Street, Launceston, married Jeanne Hollis at St Mary's church, Hagley, Launceston, on 27 January 1940, as reported in the Examiner (Launceston) of 24 February 1940.
Bevan Warland-Browne enlisted into the 2/4 Casualty Clearing Station (CCS) on 7 January 1941. The Unit which was raised in Hobart moved to Singapore early in 1941. Following the Japanese invasion CCS personnel formed the bulk of the Medical support to 'A' Force. This force comprised 3,000 Australians and was sent to Burma in May 1942. Click this link from the University of New South Wales to read the transcript of, or watch, an interview with Bevan Warland-Browne about his life and war-time experiences.
Bevan Warland-Browne died on 20 April 2011. Click this link to read his detailed obituary published in the Monash University 'Alchemy' magazine. The following is a quotation from that article:
Bevan was a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia from 1938 (for an astonishing 73 years) and practised pharmacy for 68 of those years. He was also actively involved with Rotary and is remembered as a great role model to many doctors and pharmacists.
Jeanne/Jan Warland-Browne, Bevan's wife, died suddenly in Peru on 16 August 2016, according to an online memorial.
Sources:
Page created 24 August 2014, updated 27 May 2020. Copyright © 2021 Andrew Warland. (andrewwarland(at)gmail.com)