Browne was born in 1857 in Wareham. Her parents were Matilda (born Warland) and John Clifford Elmes who as a coachbuilder. She was educated at a private school.[1]
On 18 June 1882, she married Frank Styant Browne in Wimborne, Dorset at the parish church.[2][3][4]
Emma Browne was a philanthropist. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated throughout the British empire in 1897. In Tasmania a public meeting was held to determine how the occasion might be marked. The second wife of the governor of Tasmania, Georgina Jane Connellan, Lady Gormanston suggested that a maternity hospital would be a great addition. At the time the only assistance to pregnant women came from untrained and unregulated midwives. It was agreed[5] and Brown joined the committee of women[1] to manage the new facility that opened on 195 St John Street in September 1897.[5]
The National Council of Women of Australia was not formed until 1931. Browne was an active member long before that[1] as she was in the Tasmanian branch which formed in 1899.[6] She rose to be President of that branch.[1]
The couple had six sons and a daughter who survived them even though four of her sons were soldiers in the First World War. Browne was a lifelong resident of Launceston, Tasmania. Her husband died on 17 April 1938 at their home.[1]
Browne died in Launceston on 24 October 1941. Their children were Clifford Styant-Browne of Melbourne; Alderman F. Warland-Browne, Deputy Mayor of Launceston; Arthur S. Browne, of Sydney; Harry W. Browne, of Sydney; Horace S. Browne of Perth, W.A.; Noel R. Browne, of Launceston, Kathleen Browne, of Launceston[7][8] and Noel Richardson Brown who was wounded in 1916,[9]
