Record

Code	DS/UK/129
Dates	1805-1885
Person Name	Browne; William Alexander Francis (1805-1885); medical practitioner
Surname	Browne
Forenames	William Alexander Francis
Epithet	medical practitioner
Activity	The Scottish psychiatrist and early advocate of occupational therapy and moral treatment, was born in Stirling on 24 June 1805. He was educated at the High School, Stirling and then went on to study at the University of Edinburgh where he qualified as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh in 1826. He then travelled to the Continent where he continued his studies in Belgium, France and Italy and while in France studied under eminent psychiatrist J. E. D. Esquirol (1772-1840). In 1830 he took up a medical practice in Stirling. In 1834 he was elected Medical Superintendent at Montrose Royal Asylum where he remained until 1838, when he was approached by Elizabeth Crichton to work at her newly established institution in Dumfries. Dr W. A. F. Browne was Medical Superintendent at the Crichton Royal Institution from 1838 until 1857, during which time he was instrumental in establishing the hospital's reputation and in implementing his vision of asylum care as laid down in his published series of lectures 'What Asylums Were, Are and Ought to Be' (1837). He also played an active role in life in Dumfries, and served as President of the Mechanics Institute for many years. After the passing of the 1857 Lunacy (Scotland) Act and the creation of the General Board of Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, he was appointed one of the two Medical Commissioners, along with Dr James Coxe. In 1861 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in 1865 as President of the Edinburgh Psychological Society, and in 1866 as President of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association. After an accident which affected his eyesight he resigned from his post as a Commissioner of the General Board of Lunacy in 1870. He then retired to Crindau on the banks of the River Nith in Dumfries and was appointed as Psychological Consultant at Crichton Royal Institution. Dr W. A. F. Browne died in Dumfries on 2 March 1885.

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