| Anna Brassey | |
|---|---|
Anna Brassey[1] |
|
| Born | Anna Allnutt 7 October 1839 London |
| Died | 14 September 1887 (aged 47) |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Travel writing |
| Title | Baroness Brassey |
| Spouse | Thomas Brassey |
| Children | five |
| Parents | John Allnutt |
Anna Brassey, Baroness Brassey (née Allnutt) (7 October 1839 – 14 September 1887)[2] was an English traveller and writer. Her bestselling book, A Voyage in the Sunbeam, our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months was published in 1878.
The daughter of John Allnutt, she married the English member of parliament Sir Thomas Brassey (later Earl Brassey), with whom she lived near his Hastings constituency. The couple had five children together before they travelled aboard their luxury yacht Sunbeam. The number of people on board was 43.[4] A Voyage in the Sunbeam, describing their journey around the world in 1876-7, ran through many English editions and was translated into at least five other languages. Her accounts of later voyages include Sunshine and Storm in the East (1880); In the Trades, the Tropics, and the Roaring Forties (1885); and The Last Voyage (1889, published posthumously).
At home in England, she performed charitable work, largely for the St. John Ambulance Association. Her collection of ethnographic and natural history material were shown in a museum at her husband's London house until they were moved to Hastings Museum in 1919.[5]
Lady Brassey's last voyage on the Sunbeam was to India and Australia, undertaken in November 1886 to improve her health. On the way to Mauritius, she died of malaria on 14 September 1887, and was buried at sea.[1][6][7]