He and his close friend, poet Rupert Brooke, were commissioned into the Royal Naval Division together shortly after the outbreak of the First World War.

[1] He showed early musical talent, and by the age of 15 was running the choir and playing the organ for all Sunday services at the church his family attended.

[1] At Cambridge he also became acquainted with a number of other musicians, including Arthur Bliss, Cecil Armstrong Gibbs, Clive Carey, Steuart Wilson and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

[1] In this period at Cambridge, he studied composition with Charles Wood, organ with Alan Gray, and piano with Ursula Newton (a former pupil of Ferruccio Busoni).

He became a favoured student of Busoni but excessive piano practice led him to injure his hand, suffering from either tenosynovitis[2] or neuritis (with the possibility of paralysis).

[2] These included teaching at Morley College (deputising for Gustav Holst),[1] assorted choral conducting positions, and acting as accompanist to Carey, Wilson and the French soprano Jane Bathori-Engel.

[2] In his Grove article, Hugh Taylor describes Denis Browne's criticism as "reveal[ing] a brilliant musical mind".

[2] On the outbreak of the First World War, Marsh used his influence as Private Secretary to Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) to obtain Brooke a commission.

[2][5] They sailed in the Grantully Castle, Denis Browne passed his time playing duets with F. S. Kelly and directing the band of the Hood Battalion.

At 4 o'clock he became weaker, and at 4:46 he died, with the sun shining all round his cabin, and the cool sea-breeze blowing through the door and the shaded windows.

No one could have wished for a quieter or a calmer end than in that lovely bay, shielded by the mountains and fragrant with sage and thyme.Denis Browne saw action in the Dardanelles, and was wounded in the neck on 8 May 1915.

[2] Aided by Vaughan Williams and Wilson in sorting through Denis Browne's work, Dent burnt most of the compositions; those that remain are now held in the archives of Clare College,[2] and the music and manuscript collections of the British Library.

[2] Many of Denis Browne's surviving songs have been recorded, by Graham Trew, Martyn Hill, Ian Bostridge, Andrew Kennedy and Christopher Maltman.