AustLit

Reginald Spencer Browne, journalist and soldier, was the son of William James Merrick Shawe Browne and his wife Rachel, nee Broad. He was a sub-editor on the Townsville Herald in 1877 and editor of the Cooktown Herald in 1878. In 1881 Browne moved to Brisbane as editor of the Observer, and in 1882 he joined the Brisbane Courier. He was to remain with the Brisbane Courier for most of his working life, until 1936.

Browne was a soldier as well as journalist. He was commissioned in the Queensland Mounted Infantry in 1887, became captain in 1891 and major in 1896. In 1899 he went to the Boer War as a major with the first Queensland contingent, and returned to Brisbane with a number of awards, including C. B. (Companion of the Bath). In 1903 he became lieutenant-colonel commanding the 13th Light Horse Regiment, and in 1906 became colonel of the 5th Light Horse Brigade. He commanded an infantry brigade at Gallipoli. He was later in charge of Australian training in Egypt, and then at Salisbury Plain and Weymouth in England. He returned to Australia in 1917, and retired from the military in 1921 with the rank of major-general.

Browne wrote about his memories of people and events in Queensland in A Journalist's Memories (1927). He knew a vast number of prominent people. According to his obituary in the Courier Mail (10 Nov. 1943), 'As a boy he knew Kendall and Lindsay Gordon; as a young man he was a personal friend of Brunton Stephens, and the finder and encourager of Essex Evans' (qq.v.). In 1889 he married Kitty Munro (q.v.), a musician and actress with whom he shared many cultural interests.