William Denis Browne, Hood Battalion, RND
1888-1915
William Denis Browne grew up in Leamington Spa. After Rugby School, he went to Clare College, Cambridge to read classics, but became increasingly well-known as a pianist and organist. Edward Dent described him as the ‘cleverest of the Cambridge musicians’. Browne joined Rupert Brooke and others in many productions and concerts.
After Cambridge, he freelanced as performer, reviewer, conductor and composer and studied with Busoni in Berlin. His wide musical interests included Elizabethan song as well as the latest European and Russian work, such as Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring.’ Browne’s Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were sung in Westminster Cathedral on Palm Sunday, 1914. He gave the premiere of Berg’s First Piano Sonata in May that year.
When war broke out Browne served with the RND at the unsuccessful defence of Antwerp. In February 1915, the Hood Battalion, including Browne, Sep Kelly, Rupert Brooke and Joe Murray, left Blandford Camp for Gallipoli.
