VERY RARE \"1st Earl Brassey\" Thomas Brassey Cut Signature For Sale

Up for sale a RARE! "1st Earl Brassey" Thomas Brassey Cut Signature.

ES-9020

Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey GCB, TD, JP, DL (11 February 1836 – 23 February 1918) was a British Liberal Party politician, Governor of Victoria and founder of The Naval Annual. 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, winning the seat at a by-election in June and then losing it again the general election in July. He returned to Parliament three years later as the

representative for Hastings at

the 1868 general election, holding that seat until he was defeated at the 1886 general election. He was President of the first day of the 1874 Co-operative Congress. He served under William Ewart Gladstone as Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1880 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 and raised to the peerage as Baron

Brassey, of Bulkeley in the County of Chester, in

1886. He again held office under Gladstone and then Lord Rosebery as a Lord-in-waiting from 1893 to 1895. 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. From 1895 to 1900 he was Governor of Victoria, a colony in

Australia, and lived in its capital, Melbourne,

in Government House. He returned to the

United Kingdom in March 1900, by way of Colombo.

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 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 1960s 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