Thomas Alexander Browne
Encyclopedia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n writer, who sometimes published under the pseudonym Rolf Boldrewood and best known for his novel Robbery Under Arms
Robbery Under Arms
Robbery Under Arms is a classic Australian novel by Rolf Boldrewood . It was first published in serialised form by The Sydney Mail between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in London in 1888...
.
Biography
Browne was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the eldest child of Captain Sylvester John Brown, a shipmaster formerly of the East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
, and his wife Elizabeth Angell, née Alexander. His mother was his "earliest admirer and most indulgent critic . . . to whom is chiefly due whatever meed of praise my readers may hereafter vouchsafe" (Dedication Old Melbourne Memories). (Thomas added the 'e' to his surname in the 1860s). After his father's barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
Proteus had delivered a cargo of convicts in Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, the family settled in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1831. Sylvester Brown took up whaling and built a stone mansion Enmore which gave its name to the suburb of Sydney . Thomas Browne was sent to W. T. Cape's
William Timothy Cape
William Timothy Cape was an early school master in Sydney, Australia; several of the Premiers of New South Wales attended his school....
school at Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, and afterwards to Sydney College
Sydney College
Sydney College can refer to more than one establishment:*Sydney College, Bath, a former prominent independent boys school in Somerset, England, now housing the Holburne Museum of Art*Sydney Grammar School, a grammar school in Sydney, New South Wales...
, when Cape became its headmaster. One of Browne's closest school friends was a son of Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes
John George Nathaniel Gibbes
Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes was a British army officer who emigrated to Australia in 1834, becoming a Crown-appointed member of the New South Wales Legislative Council and the Collector of Customs for the Colony of New South Wales for a record term of 25 years.In his capacity as head of...
, MLC, the Collector of Customs for New South Wales, and according to the Dulhunty Papers, Browne spent carefree holidays staying with the Gibbes family at their grand waterside residence on Sydney's Point Piper.
When his father moved to Melbourne in 1839, Browne remained at Sydney College as a boarder until 1841 and then was taught by Rev. David Boyd in Melbourne. In 1843, though only 17 years old, Browne took up land near Port Fairy and was there until 1856. He visited England in 1860 and by 1864 had a property in the Riverina
Riverina
The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales , Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop...
. However, bad seasons in 1866 and 1868 compelled Browne to give up squatting
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
, and in 1871 he became a police magistrate and goldfields commissioner. After living in Sydney a short time, in April 1871 he was appointed a police magistrate at Gulgong and gold commissioner in 1872.
Browne was an experienced justice of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
, having acted as chairman of the bench of justices at Narrandera, but in his first years at Gulgong, then one of the richest and largest goldfield
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
s in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, his ignorance of mining and the complicated regulations drew criticism of his competence as commissioner. He was persistently attacked by the Gulgong Guardian until in 1873 it published an anonymous letter accusing him of bias and corruption. Its editor was thereupon convicted in Sydney of criminal libel and sentenced to six months gaol. The charges against Browne were disproved, and he won favour with the miners by magnanimously interceding with the judge for a light punishment of his libeller. In 1881 Browne was transferred as magistrate and mining warden to Dubbo and to Armidale in 1884. He moved to Albury
Albury, New South Wales
Albury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
as chairman of the Land Licensing Board in 1885, serving there as magistrate and warden from 1887–1895 until retiring to Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
. He died on 11 March 1915 and was buried in Brighton Cemetery
Brighton Cemetery
Brighton Cemetery is located in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield South, Victoria, but takes its name from Brighton, Victoria.The Cemetery pre-dates the Caulfield Roads Board - the first official recognition of the suburb of Caulfield. Opened in 1855 it became, together with St. Kilda Cemetery, an...
.
Literary career
Browne spent around twenty-five years as a squatter and about the same time as a government official, but his third career as author extended over forty years. In 1865, while recovering from a riding accident, he wrote two articles on pastoral life in Australia for the Cornhill Magazine, and he also began to contribute articles and serial stories to the Australian weeklies. One of these, Ups and Downs: a Story of Australian Life, was published in book form in London in 1878. It was well reviewed but attracted little notice. It was re-issued as The Squatter's Dream in 1890.In 1884 Old Melbourne Memories, a book of reminiscences of the eighteen-forties was published at Melbourne, "by Rolf Boldrewood, author of My Run Home, The Squatter's Dream and Robbery Under Arms". These had appeared in the Sydney Town and Country Journal and The Sydney Mail
The Sydney Mail
The Sydney Mail was an Australian magazine published weekly in Sydney. The weekly edition of The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, it ran from 1860 to 1938....
, but only The Squatter's Dream had been published in book form and then under the title of Ups and Downs. In 1888 Robbery Under Arms appeared in three volumes and its merits were immediately recognized. Several editions were printed before the close of the century. At the beginning of this novel the narrator, Dick Marsden, is awaiting execution for crimes committed whilst he was a bushranger. He goes on to tell the story of his life and loves and his association with the notorious Captain Starlight. Some of the events in the book are based on actual incidents carried out by contemporary bushranger
Bushranger
Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
s like Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan
Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier, and United States Representative from Virginia. One of the most gifted battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War, he later commanded troops during the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion.-Early years:Most authorities believe that...
, Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner was a noted Australian bushranger of the 19th century. He was born in Scotland about 1827 and migrated from to Australia as a child with his parents in 1834,. His real name was Francis Christie, though he often used one of several other aliases including Gardiner, Clarke or Christie...
, James Alpin McPherson
James Alpin McPherson
James Alpin McPherson otherwise known as The Wild Scotchman, was an Australian bushranger active in the area around Gin Gin, Queensland in the 19th century....
and John Gilbert
John Gilbert (bushranger)
Johnny Gilbert was an Australian bushranger shot dead by the police at the age of 23 near Binalong, New South Wales on 13 May 1865.John Gilbert was the only Australian bushranger never to go to prison...
. Robbery under Arms has, remained popular since its first publication in 1888; the novel was filmed in 1907, 1920 and 1957. A television series was made in 1985. The novel has also been serialised on radio in both Australia and Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Browne married Margaret Maria (daughter of W. E. Riley and granddaughter of Alexander Riley
Alexander Riley
Alexander Riley was a merchant and one of the most important early pastoralists in Sydney and in New South Wales. Born in London to George Riley Snr, a well-educated bookseller, and Margaret Raby, he was the older brother of Edward Riley, also a merchant and pastoralist in Sydney...
) in 1860 who survived him with two sons and five daughters, one of whom, "Rose Boldrewood", published a novel The Complications at Collaroi in 1911. Mrs Browne was the author of The Flower Garden in Australia, published in 1893.
Named in his honour, the 'Rolf Boldrewood Literary Awards' are awarded annually by the Macquarie Regional Library.
Novels
- My Run Home (1874)
- The Squatter's Dream: A Story of Australian Life (1875) [aka Ups and Downs : A Story of Australian Life]
- A Colonial Reformer (1876)
- Babes in the Bush (1877) [aka An Australian Squire]
- Robbery Under ArmsRobbery Under ArmsRobbery Under Arms is a classic Australian novel by Rolf Boldrewood . It was first published in serialised form by The Sydney Mail between July 1882 and August 1883, then in three volumes in London in 1888...
(1882) - The Sealskin Coat (1884–1885) [aka The Sealskin Mantle]
- The Crooked Stick, or, Pollie's Probation (1885) [aka The Final Choice, or, Pollie's Probation]
- The Sphinx of Eaglehawk: A Tale of Old Bendigo (1887)
- A Sydney-Side Saxon (1888)
- Nevermore (1889–90)
- The Miner's Right : A Tale of the Australian Goldfields (1890)
- A Modern Buccaneer (1894)
- Plain Living: A Bush Idyll (1898)
- War to the Knife', or Tangata Maori (1899)
- The Ghost-Camp, or, The Avengers (1902)
- The Last Chance: A Tale of the Golden West (1905)
Short story collections
- A Romance of Canvas Town and Other Stories (1898)
- In Bad Company and Other Stories (1901)
Non-fiction
- S.W. Silver & Co's Australian Grazier's Guide : 1. Sheep [and] II. Cattle (1879)
- S.W. Silver & Co.'s Australian Grazier's Guide (1879)
- S.W. Silver & Co.'s Australian Grazier's Guide : No. II - Cattle. (1881)
External links
- ebooks of works by Rolf Boldrewood at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Thomas Alexander Browne (1826-1915) Gravesite at Brighton General Cemetery (Vic)