Author: John Hutton Balfour Browne
Author: John Hutton Balfour Browne (1845–1921)
Alternate Name(s): Max Hillary (pseudonym); Hamilton Marshall (pseudonym)
Biography: John Hutton Balfour Browne was born in 1845 in Scotland, the son of the alienist Dr. William Alexander Francis Browne (1805–85). His elder brother was Sir James Crichton Browne (1840–1938), the physician and psychiatrist. He studied at Edinburgh University, entered the Middle Temple, and became a barrister in 1870. The following year he published a novel For Very Life (1871) under the pseudonym "Hamilton Marshall" and would go on to use the pen-name for two subsequent novels. In 1874, he married Caroline Lush, the daughter of Lord Justice Lush, and the couple had three children. The same year he was appointed registrar and secretary of the Railway Commission. Browne stood for parliament twice (1906, 1910) unsuccessfully. After his retirement in 1915, he served on a number of aviation committees. Browne went on to write a number of law books as well as four more novels under the pseudonym "Max Hillary": Hunted Down (1885), Once for All (1885), The Turn of the Tide (1896), and The Blue Flag (1898) (the latter two historical novels). His memoirs, Forty Years at the Bar, appeared in 1916. He died in 1921 near Dumfries. His daughter Elizabeth M. C. Balfour Browne would also publish a novel.
Author Tags:
References: British Census (1881); DNB (William Alexander Francis Browne); Times (29 September 1921)
Fiction Titles:
- For Very Life: A Novel. 2 vol. London: Chapman and Hall, 1871.
- Men were Deceivers Ever: A History. 2 vol. London: Chapman and Hall, 1872.
- The Story of Sir Edward's Wife: A Novel. 1 vol. London: Henry S. King, 1872.
- Once for All: A Novel. 3 vol. London: Sampson Low, 1885.
- Hunted Down. 1 vol. London: Ward and Downey, 1885.
- The Turn of the Tide: A Story of 1745. 1 vol. London: Women's Printing Society, 1896.
- The Blue Flag: A Tale of the Rebellion. 1 vol. London: Ward and Lock, 1898.