Henry Brassey

Henry Arthur Brassey (14 July 1840 – 13 May 1891), DL, of Preston Hall, Aylesford, Kent, and of Bath House, Piccadilly, London, was a British member of parliament.

Origins He was the second son of the railway magnate Thomas Brassey and his wife Maria Harrison, a daughter of Thomas Harrison of Liverpool. His elder brother was Thomas Brassey, 1st Earl Brassey, and his younger brother was Albert Brassey, a member of parliament for Banbury.

Career

He was educated at Oxford University, and in 1868 was elected as member of parliament for Sandwich in Kent, as a Liberal, a seat he held until 1885. Brassey served as a deputy lieutenant for Kent, as High Sheriff of Kent in 1890 and as a justice of the peace for that county.

Marriage and children In 1866 Brassey married Anna Harriet Stevenson (d.1898), a daughter of Major George Robert Stevenson of Tongswood, Hawkhurst, Kent, with whom he had five sons and seven daughters, including: Henry Brassey, 1st Baron Brassey of Apethorpe, second but eldest surviving son and heir, a Conservative politician who was raised to the peerage in 1938; Harold Ernest Brassey, soldier and polo champion; Hilda Brassey (Duchess of Richmond), wife of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 8th Duke of Richmond. Beatrice Brassey, co-founder of the White Heather Club, the first women's cricket club.

Death Brassey died in May 1891, aged 50.