Brough was born in London, the son of Barnabas Brough, a brewer, publican, wine merchant and later dramatist, and his wife Frances Whiteside, a poet and novelist. His father was briefly kidnapped by the Chartists in 1839 and was a prosecution witness at the trial of the Chartist leader John Frost, which resulted in Frost"s deportation to Australia.
As a dramatist, he wrote some of the earliest German Reed Entertainments, as well as Victorian burlesques, farces and other pieces. He was the brother of writer Robert (father of actress Fanny Brough), actor Lionel and science writer John Cargill Brough. The family was ostracised and ruined financially as a result, and they moved to Manchester in 1843.
Brough was educated at Newport, Monmouthshire, and apprenticed to a printer at Brecon.
His dramatic works, chiefly Victorian burlesques, were seen at many of the London theatres. These included Pygmalion.
Or, The Statue Fair and The Gnome King (1868) at the Queen"s Theatre, Long Acre. He also wrote some of the first of the dramatic entertainments given by Mr. and Mistress
German Reed in the 1850s.
With Madge Kendal and Samuel Phelps, he toured the provinces, stopping in 1866 at the Theatre Royal, Hull. Brough was interred at London"s Nunhead Cemetery.
