Dr Samuel Browne was a prominent surgeon who specialised in ophthalmic medicine.

He was educated at Dublin, Glasgow and London and was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Browne also lectured on ophthalmic surgery and was a member of the Irish Medical Graduates Association. He published a number of publications on ocular medicine and is thought to have been the first medic in Belfast to practice ophthalmic surgery as a speciality.

With the financial support of Sir William and Lady Johnston, Browne founded the Ophthalmic Institution in Great Victoria Street. His son, Dr J Walton Browne, later joined the practice. Browne was also a consulting surgeon to the Belfast Royal Hospital (later Royal Victoria Hospital), surgeon to the Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, medical superintendent for the Belfast borough and medical officer for the Belfast Poor Law Union.

As an advocate for sanitary reform, Browne used his civic position to call for improvement to housing and washing facilities in the city.

He died in August 1890 at the age of eighty-one.