Benjamin Chapman Browne
1911–68. Praelector in Experimental Geophysics (1947–68) and Head of the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics, University of Cambridge
Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the son of Sir Benjamin Chapman Browne, an engineer and shipbuilder, Browne was educated at Harrow School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He became a Fellow of Trinity in 1947 and remained here until his death.
He worked on the measurement of accelerations in submarines and their second order effect on the observed value of gravity. He was the originator of the “Browne Correction”.
His son was also named Benjamin Chapman Browne, and was an undergraduate at Trinity, matriculating in 1972.
Memorial inscription
BENJAMIN CHAPMAN BROWNE
COLLEGII HVIVS SOCIVS ET IN ACADEMIA LECTOR CONVIVA HILARIS
ET BENEVOLVS MVLTA AD TERRAS EXTERNAS MVLTA SVB IPSIS
MARIBVS ITINERA FECIT VT VIS ILLA MELIVS COMPREHENDERETVR
QVA ORBIS TERRAE CORPORA AD SE ADTRAHIT. DECESSIT ANNO
SALVTIS MCMLXVIII AETATIS SVAE LVIII
Translation
Benjamin Chapman Browne, Fellow of the College and Lecturer in the University, was a cheerful companion and a man full of kindness. He made many trips abroad, and many under the sea itself, the better to understand that gravitational force by which the earth attracts matter. He died in 1968 at the age of fifty-seven.
Brass located on the north wall of the Ante-Chapel. Inscription text by Francis Henry Sandbach.
