Despite six volumes of extracts from his commonplace book, Crichton-Browne managed to leave few traces of his personal life. Only the bare facts are known.

He married twice. Firstly, in 1865, Emily the youngest daughter of Dr John Halliday, a surgeon in Seacombe, Cheshire. She died in 1903. They had a son and a daughter. The daughter died in 1936. Their son, Colonel Harold William Alexander Crichton-Browne, also predeceased his father dying, aged 71, in 1937. . Harold explored the Atlas Mountains, was a Cambridge graduate, served as a police officer in Bechuanaland, fought in the Boer War, and was Colonel of the 3^rd Battalion, Kings Own Scottish Borderers in World War 1.

Crichton-Browne remarried. His second wife was another Emily, daughter of General Sir E Bulwer, and a great-niece of Bulwer Lytton. There were no children of this marriage.

Most of his siblings died in childhood. He had a brother Mr Balfour-Browne, KC, a Parliamentary Counsel, and an authority on sanitation legislation. He died in 1921.

A nephew of Crichton-Browne, Prof. Frank Balfour-Browne was President of the Royal Microscopical Society. Two grandsons were killed in the first World War.

A granddaughter of Crichton-Browne, Sybil Cookson, was a journalist and author of romantic novels. Crichton- Browne often visited her at Bolton House in Hampstead where she lived with the artist Gluck. Cookson’s daughter is the model for a portrait, ‘Gamin ‘ by Gluck. Crichton-Browne commissioned a portrait of himself from Gluck.

His son, Harold (1866-1937) married Margaret Verdin in 1894 – they had one daughter, presumably Sybil.

Crichton-Browne had two serious operations in later life – the second was for appendicitis at the age of 85. In later life he spent seven months of the year in London and five months in his Dumfries home. His recipe for longevity was – ‘Work and plenty of it’. He regarded work as the cure for many ailments.

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Sir James Crichton-Browne:

A Very Victorian Psychiatrist

1840-1937

Personal Life

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