He worked with his brother William to write a Victorian burlesque play, The Enchanted Isle, which was produced in Liverpool in 1848 before transferring to London.
In it, Brough critiqued the handling of the Crimean War and launched an attack on the upper classes through his satiric fictional portraits of aristocratic figures.
Brough also penned a parody of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" called "The Vulture; An Ornithological Study" which was published in the December 1853 issue of Graham's Magazine, though he was not credited.
In 1860 Robert Brough edited the magazine the Welcome Guest for John Maxwell, and was editor at the time of the first contribution by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.
It was a thinly disguised account of William Holman Hunt's experience painting his picture The Hireling Shepherd and of his relations with his model Emma Watkins.
On 26 June 1860, Robert Brough died at 8 Boundary Street, Hulme, near Manchester, leaving his widow and three children with little money to support them.
The Savage Club, with the help of five leading London theatres, arranged a benefit performance to establish a fund to support them, with Charles Dickens as a trustee.