| The Right Honourable The Earl Brassey GCB, JP, DL, TD |
|
|---|---|
| Lord Brassey, 1895. | |
| Governor of Victoria | |
| In office 6 February 1895 – 1900 |
|
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Hopetoun |
| Succeeded by | Sir George Clarke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 February 1836 |
| Died | 23 February 1918 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Anna Allnutt |
| Alma mater | University College, Oxford |
Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey GCB, JP, DL, TD (11 February 1836 – 23 February 1918), was a British Liberal Party politician, Governor of Victoria and founder of The Naval Annual.
Contents |
Brassey was the son of the railway contractor Thomas Brassey, by Maria Harrison, daughter of Joseph Harrison, a forwarding and shipping agent. He was the brother of Henry Brassey and Albert Brassey. He was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, in 1864.
Brassey was briefly Member of Parliament (MP) for Devonport in 1865,[1] winning the seat at a by-election in June and then losing it again the general election in July.[1] He returned to Parliament three years later as the representative for Hastings at the 1868 general election,[2] holding that seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1886 general election.[3] He was President of the first day of the 1874 Co-operative Congress.[4] He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1880[5] to 1884 and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty from 1884 to 1884. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1881[6] and raised to the peerage as Baron Brassey, of Bulkeley in the County of Chester, in 1886.[7] He again held office under Gladstone and then Lord Rosebery as a Lord-in-Waiting from 1893[8] to 1895.[9] In 1893 Queen Victoria appointed nine members as the Royal Opium Commission, which consisted of seven British and two Indian members, which was headed by Lord Brassey, who served as the Chairman. The Commission was to report on whether India Opium export trade to far east (China) should be ended and, further, whether poppy growing and consumption of Opium in India itself should be prohibited save for medical purpose.[10]
From 1895[11] to 1900 he was Governor of Victoria, a colony in Australia, and lived in its capital, Melbourne, in Government House. Brassey is remembered in Australia's national capital, Canberra, with Brassey House, now a hotel (originally a guest house) in the inner suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory completed in 1927 to coincide with the relocation of the Federal Parliament from Melbourne, Victoria, to Canberra. Brassey House originally offered 45 rooms with shared bathing facilities, for the exclusive use of members of parliament and mid-level government officials relocating to Canberra. During the mid 1960's the government of the day expanded the capacity to 131 rooms and added conference and meeting rooms. It was sold in the mid-1980s to local businessmen and has been operated since as a residential hotel, now with 75 rooms including ensuites. It is said to have been built back-to-front, with the more ornate façade facing Belmore Gardens and its plainer face to Macquarie Street.[12]
Between 6 July 1876 and 27 May 1877 Brassey circumnavigated the world in his steam-assisted three-masted topsail-yard schooner Sunbeam. This voyage is said to have been the first circumnavigation by a private yacht. His son Thomas left the Sunbeam at Rio de Janeiro in order to return to school in England. His wife Annie, Lady Brassey (1839–1887), published an account of the cruise entitled In The Trades, The Tropics, & The Roaring Forties, or alternatively A Voyage In The Sunbeam: Our Home On The Ocean For Eleven Months. In 1880 Brassey's book The British Navy was published. In 1886, he started The Naval Annual, generally referred to as Brassey's Naval Annual. He edited The Naval Annual until 1891. He was succeeded as editor by his son Thomas.
Brassey was also President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1879 to 1880 and served as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports from 1908[13] to 1913.[14] He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1906[15] and made Viscount Hythe, of Hythe in the County of Kent, and Earl Brassey in 1911.[16]
Lord Brassey married firstly Anna Allnutt, daughter of John Allnutt, of Clapham, Surrey. They had one son and four daughters. The third daughter, Lady Muriel Agmes, married Gilbert Sackville, 8th Earl De La Warr, and was the mother of Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr, while the fourth daughter, Lady Marie Adelaide, married Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon. Lady Brassey died in September 1887, aged 47. Lord Brassey married secondly Lady Sybil de Vere Capell, daughter of Arthur Capell, Viscount Malden, and sister of George Capell, 7th Earl of Essex, in 1890. They had one daughter. Lord Brassey died in February 1918, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his only son, Thomas.
|
||||||||||||