IRELAND, 2012 centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, Scott 1958
Francis ("Frank") Mary Hegarty Browne, Browne’s mother, died when he was young and his father when in his teens. His uncle Robert Browne, Bishop of Cloyne, acted as guardian to Frank and his siblings, four of whom entered religious life. When Frank completed his secondary education he decided to become a Jesuit. Immediately before entering the Order, Uncle Robert sent him on a grand tour of Europe and bought him a camera to record his trip. This visionary act was to reveal a natural aesthetic ability and fostered an interest in photography that was to reach fruition when Frank became the most outstanding Irish photographer of the first half of the Twentieth Century.
The bishop had another surprise up his sleeve, when in early 1912 he presented Frank with a first-class ticket for the maiden voyage of the Titanic to bring him as far as Cobh. So it was that on the morning of the 12 April 1912 he arrived at Waterloo Station in London to catch the Titanic Special. He immediately started taking photographs, first recording the train journey and then life aboard the Titanic on the initial section of the voyage. Having made friends with a wealthy American family he was offered a ticket for the remaining part of the journey and no doubt excitedly telegraphed a request for permission to go on to New York, to which he received the terse response "Get Off That Ship — Provincial!" That telegram not only saved Frank’s life but also meant that this unique record of the voyage was saved for posterity and guaranteed overnight fame for Frank Browne SJ.
It is estimated that Browne took over 42,000 photographs during his life. Twenty-three volumes of the photographs have now been published. The features editor of The Sunday Times of London called this "the photographic equivalent to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls."More
Several stamps show a photograph which includes Fr. Browne. The Titanic arrived in Queenstown, where Browne would disembark. As the tender America approached the Titanic's port gangway, a photo was taken by a Mr. Whyte of Queenstown which later appeared on a number of philatelic items. Browne was in this photo: the center figure of the three immediate forward of the four aft lifeboats (see the detail of the photo).
