George Buckston Browne collection on Down House

Sir George Buckston Browne (13 April 1850 – 19 January 1945) was a British surgeon and pioneer urologist. He was born in Manchester, the son of physician Dr. Henry Browne. He was educated at University College London. He was a fan of Charles Darwin and collected Darwin objects. In 1927, he bought Charles Darwin's former home Down House and founded the Buckston Brown Research Farm in Downe in 1931. Sir Buckston Browne was the fifth medical man in direct paternal descent from Theophilus. He was educated at Amersham Hall School Reading, and at Owens College, Manchester, and in 1866 matriculated at University College, London. He won medals in anatomy, chemistry and midwifery and a gold medal in practical chemistry, and served for a time as demonstrator of anatomy to Professor G V Ellis. At University College Hospital he won the Liston gold medal in surgery, and was elected after open practical competition house surgeon to Sir John Erichsen. He had qualified MRCS in 1874, but before opportunities for further hospital appointments appeared he was invited by Sir Henry Thompson to become his private assistant. Browne held this position for fourteen years, and in 1884 he also started his own consultant practice. In those days elderly men who would now undergo excision of the prostate had to suffer partial operation followed by a "catheter" life under the personal supervision of their surgeon. Among his distinguished patients were R L Stevenson, George Meredith,and Sidney Cooper. He died at University College Hospital in London, aged 94