Born in Larne, Northern Ireland, the son of William Alexander Francis Balfour-Browne the well known Coleopterist. Educated at Rugby School, and at Oxford (1925-1927) and Cambridge (1928-1931) Universities. Immediately after leaving Cambridge served as an economic entomologist to the Junta Geral, Madeira. In 1934 took up a post at the NHM where he worked in the Entomology Department, becoming Head of the Coleoptera Section, until his retirement in 1967.
Apart from a few papers on Apion between 1942 and 1945, and an article on the nomenclature of the Cryptophagidae in 1953, almost all Balfour-Browne's work was on the Dytiscidae (including Noteridae), Hydraenidae and Hydrophilidae. In these groups he published some seventy articles, etc. between 1936 and 1979, covering the faunas of Fiji, China, Japan, Arabia, Africa, Tibet and other countries. This must have disappointed Guy Marshall who wrote to Colbran Wainwright 29 December 1944 ‘...I am helping Jack Balfour-Browne to make a start with the weevils, so that he can carry on my work when I get too doddery.’ (Letter in RES quoted in Pedersen (2002),140.
He maintained a small reference collection of aquatic beetles and his other material was deposited in collections at Paris, Tervuren, Honolulu, San Francisco, NHM, etc.. Harvey et. al. (1996), list various manuscript materials at the NHM including notebooks, typescripts and correspondence.
FRES, FZS and President of the Balfour-Browne Club. (Information from J.W.A.F.B-B.) (MD 9/01, 11/09)