Frank Browne

Who was Frank Browne?

Francis Courtney "Frank" Browne was an Australian journalist.

Browne was born in Coogee, New South Wales to New Zealand-born tailor Courtney Brown and Linda Veronica, née Heckenberg. He attended Christian Brothers' College in Waverley and went on to enter the Royal Military College, having failed to win a bursary for university. In August 1935 he was discharged and described as "temperamentally unsuited to the military profession"; Browne would later claim that he was in fact expelled as a result of an affair with an officer's wife. He also claimed to have won a "gold pocket" for sporting excellence.

After leaving the military Browne became a cadet journalist on Smith's Weekly and then travelled to the United States, writing for the Chicago Tribune. He boxed professionally as "Buzz Brown" in the featherweight division. It was later rumoured that he had served with communist forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1937, receiving a Soviet decoration after his wounding, a fact he later refused to confirm or deny. He returned to Sydney in 1938.

Browne, now a greyhound racing correspondent for The Daily Mirror, enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces in January 1942, serving in anti-tank regiments and then with the North Australia Observer Unit as a commissioned lieutenant. He married Marie Katherine Ormston, a musician, on 19 September 1942 at St Mary's Cathedral, and was declared medically unfit for service on 10 February 1943.