Researching John Browne

Browne began his hurling career at club level with Blackrock. He broke onto the club's senior team straight out of the minor grade in 1995 was part of three Cork Senior Championship-winning teams - 1998, 1999 and 2001. Browne's early prowess also saw him selected for University College Cork, with whom he won a Fitzgibbon Cup title.

At inter-county level, Browne was part of the successful Cork under-21 team that won the All-Ireland Championship in 1997. He joined the Cork senior team in 1998. From his debut, Browne was ever-present in the last line of defence and made a combined total of 58 National League and Championship appearances in a career that ended in 2005. During that time he was part of three All-Ireland Championship-winning teams – in 1999, 2004 and 2005. Browne also secured three Munster Championship medals and a National Hurling League medal.

At inter-provincial level, Browne was selected to play in one championship campaign with Munster. He later became involved in team management and coaching and has served as manager of the Blackrock senior team.

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada as a Member of the Progressive Conservative Party in the 1958 election to represent the riding of Vancouver Kingsway. Prior to his federal political experience, he served during World War II in the Canadian Army in Canada, England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. For his service, he was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the War Medal, the Defence Medal and the Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Overseas Clasp. He died at a Vancouver hospital on June 9, 2014.

Serving as surgeon with the 98th Regiment of Foot in India in 1848, Browne developed Chlorodyne for use during an outbreak of cholera. It was subsequently used as a general cure in the Crimean War.

In 1856 he left the army and went into partnership with John Thistlewood Davenport, a chemist, then at 33 Great Russell Street, to whom he assigned the sole right to manufacture and market 'Brown's Cough Bottle'. The formulation was abused and its addictive ingredients were reduced as a result; since the Medicines Act of 1968 it has been known as 'J. Collis Browne's Compound'. It was still marketed by J.T. Davenport & Sons - the same family - up until the 1960s. BCB International, named for the product, now focusses on outdoor equipment, including shark repellent, ballistic underwear, bioethanol fuel packs, and emergency packs for lifeboats.

Dr Browne died at Mount Albion House, Ramsgate, on 30 August 1884. He is buried in St Laurence-in-Thanet churchyard in Ramsgate.

Upon Browne's death plans were made by Messrs Davenport to erect a plaque in his memory on the house where he had lived. The plaque was designed by the lettering craftsman William Sharpington and unveiled by the Mayor of Ramsgate on 8 May 1973. Dr N.M. Goodman recorded the event in The Lancet.

Browne was the son of John Browne of Frampton, Dorset. He matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 13 October 1598, aged 16. He was a student of the Middle Temple in 1599. In 1621, he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Bridport. He was re-elected as one of the members for Bridport in 1628, but his election was declared void on 12 April. In June 1641 he was elected for Dorset in the Long Parliament and sat until 1653, surviving Pride's Purge in 1648. He was appointed as a commissioner for the trial of the King in 1649, but did not act.

Browne died at the age of 78.

He was born in Wembley, London, the son of a civil engineer, and came to Canada with his family in 1905. In 1912, the family moved to Montreal. Browne was educated at Westmount High School and at McGill University. He went on to work in Germany, Austria and England under a travelling fellowship from the Royal Society of Canada. Browne returned to McGill as a research fellow, later becoming a professor of medicine, Medical Department chairman and director of the Royal Victoria Hospital. He was forced to leave those positions due to failing eyesight but served as chairman of the Department of Investigative Medicine from 1955 until his retirement in 1960.

In 1964, he helped establish the Conseil du recherche medical du Quebec, later known as the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, and also helped found the Canadian Clinical Investigation Travel Club, later the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation.

He is credited with contributing to important advances in endocrinology. During his time at McGill, he pressed for the addition of more biochemistry and physiology in the undergraduate curriculum for clinical medicine.

Browne was named to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1994 for his efforts to create co-operation between the English and French-speaking physicians of Quebec.