He was born on 21 May 1881 the son of Friederike Sophia Pauline (née Schmeltzer 1851–1895) and Hugh Hamilton Browning (1845–1927), a schoolmaster.
Using a combination of Coats scholarship and election as a Carnegie Fellow he travelled to Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany for two years of study at the Paul Ehrlich Institute, 1905 to 1907.
As a result of his prestigious research in Germany, in 1911 he was appointed director of the clinical laboratory at the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, aged 30.
[2] In 1947 Browning created a section specialising in medical mycology (fungal diseases in humans) at his Department in Glasgow’s Western Infirmary.
[4] Browning specifically chose Gentles as a botanist, rather than a doctor, realising the importance of recognising different species of fungus.