William Henry BrownePrint Page

The monument erected over the grave commemorates William Henry Browne, Minister for Mines, who died in 1904.

A former miner, Browne helped to form a miners` union at Croydon and was successively its president and secretary. In August 1890 he contested a Legislative Assembly by-election for the two-member electorate of Burke, but John Hoolan defeated him by twenty-four votes. Still secretary of the miners` union, Browne organized financial support for the shearers during the 1891 pastoral strike.

In 1892 Burke was divided into two single-member electorates: at the election next year he won the new seat, Croydon. Though not a forceful orator, he spoke often in the House. He became secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party but was forced to vacate the position in 1898 because of acute asthma associated with miner`s phthisis.

He became Deputy Premier and Secretary for Mines and for Public Works in the new government on 17 September 1903, but died of pneumonia and angina pectoris on 12 April 1904.

At a meeting of the W. H. Browne Memorial Fund committee on the 13th instant it was shown that after paying expenses to date there is still a balance of it is anticipated that this amount will be doubled by December next, when the fund closes. The tender of Messrs. Parsons and Payne for a monument—a rough granite boulder 6 ft. high — to be erected in Toowong Cemetery, was accepted, the price being £28 10s. The inscription on the monument will be : "In memory of William Henry Browne," with the late Labour leader's age and the date of his death.
Worker (Brisbane), 21 January 1905.

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