BRASSEY, THOMAS (1805-187o), English railway con tractor, was born at Buerton, near Chester, on Nov. 7, 1805. At the age of 16 he was apprenticed to a surveyor, and on the corn pletion of his term became a partner of his master, eventually assuming the sole management of the business. His first engage ment as railway contractor was entered upon in 1835, when he undertook the execution of a portion of the Grand Junction rail way, on the invitation of Joseph Locke, who soon afterwards entrusted him with the completion of the London and South ampton railway, a task which involved contracts to the amount of £4,000,000 sterling and the employment of a body of 3,000 men. At the same time he was engaged on portions of several other lines in the north of England, and in Scotland. In conjunc tion with his partner, W. Mackenzie, Brassey undertook, in 184o, the construction of the railway from Paris to Rouen, of which Locke was engineer. A few years later he was engaged with his partner on five other French lines, and on his own account on the same number of lines in England, Wales and Scotland. In the following year he engaged in the construction of railways in Holland, Prussia, Spain and Italy. One of his largest undertakings was the Grand Trunk railway of Canada, I,Ioo miles in length, with its fine bridge over the St. Lawrence. In this work he was associated with Sir M. Peto and E. L. Betts. In the following years divisions of his industrial army of some 75,000 men were found in almost every country in Europe, in India, in Australia and in South America. Besides railway works, he originated a great number of subsidiary establishments, coal and iron works, dockyards, etc. Brassey died at St. Leonards on Dec. 8, 187o. See Sir Arthur Helps Life and Labours of Mr. Brassey (1872).
He left three sons, of whom the eldest, THOMAS (1836-1918) was created a baron in 1886 and earl in 1911 on the coronation of George V. He was educated at Rugby and Oxford, entered parliament for Hastings as a liberal in 1868, and devoted himself to naval affairs. He was civil lord of the admiralty (188o-83), and secretary to the admiralty (1883-85). He carried out a number of important enquiries, into wages and conditions of labour in the dockyards, shipbuilding, and design, and into the details of administration in the dockyards. In 1893-95 he was president of the Institution of Naval Architects. In 1894 he was a lord-in-waiting, and from 1895 to 1900 was governor of Victoria. In 1908 he was appointed lord warden of the Cinque Ports. Among Lord Brassey's publications, his inauguration of the Naval Annual (1886 onwards), and his encyclopaedic work on The British Navy (1882-83) are the most important. He died in London on Feb. 23, 1918, and was succeeded as second earl by his son Thomas Allnutt Brassey, who died in 1919•