BRUMMELL, GEORGE BRYAN English man of fashion, known as "BEAU BRUMMELL," was born in Lon don on June 7, 17 78. His father was private secretary to Lord North from 177o to 1782, and subsequently high sheriff of Berk shire ; his grandfather was a shopkeeper in the parish of St. James, who let lodgings to the aristocracy. From his early years George Brummell paid great attention to his dress. At Eton, where he was sent to school in 1790, and was extremely popular, he was known as Buck Brummell, and at Oxford, where he spent a brief period as an undergraduate at Oriel college, he preserved this reputation, and added to it that of a wit. He returned to London, where the prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.), to whom he had been presented at Eton, gave him a commission in his own regiment (1794). Brummell soon became intimate with his patron, and in 1798, having then reached the rank of captain, he left the service, and next year succeeded to a fortune of about £30,000. Setting up a bachelor establishment in Mayfair, he be came, thanks to the prince of Wales's friendship and his own good taste in dress, the recognized arbiter elegantiarzum. For a time his sway was undisputed. But eventually gambling and extravagance exhausted his fortune, while his tongue proved too sharp for his royal patron. They quarrelled, and, though for a time Brummell continued to hold his place in society, his popularity began to decline. In 1816 he fled to Calais to avoid his creditors. There he struggled on for 14 years, always hopelessly in debt. From 183o to 5832 he was British consul at Caen. In 1835 he was imprisoned for debt, but his friends once more came to the rescue, and pro vided him with a small income. He had now lost all his interest in dress ; his personal appearance was slovenly and dirty. In 1837, after two attacks of paralysis, shelter was found for him in the charitable asylum of Bon Sauveur, Caen, where he died on March 3o, 1840.
See Capt. William Jesse, Life of Brummell (1844, rev. ed. 1886) ; Percy H. Fitzgerald, Life of George IV. (1881) ; R. Boutet de Monvel, Beau Brummel (trans. 1908) ; Lewis Melville, Beau Brummel, His Life and Letters (1924) .