Orders, Decorations and Medals

Six: Lieutenant-Colonel 2nd Earl Brassey, Viscount Hythe, West Kent Yeomanry

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill (Capt. Hon. T. A. Brassey, 69 Co. Imp. Yeo.); British War and Victory Medals (Lt. Col. Viscount Hythe); Coronation 1911, unnamed; Territorial Decoration, E.VII.R., hallmarks for London 1908, complete with top bar; Royal Humane Society, small silver medal (successful) (Thomas Allnutt Brassey, 30 September 1884) with silver buckle on ribbon, mounted for wear, very fine and better (6) £600-700

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Life Saving Awards formed by The Late W.H. Fevyer.

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Ref. Spink Exhibition 1985, No. 14.

Thomas Allnutt Brassey was born on 7 March 1868, the eldest son of the 1st Earl Brassey, and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, becoming an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College in 1907. He was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Medal in silver for the following rescue on Loch Carron:

‘On the 30th September, 1884, Sir Thomas Brassey’s yacht The Sunbeam was lying in Loch Carron, Ross-shire. As the yacht’s cutter was proceeding to shore (about three quarters of a mile distant) one of her planks started, owing to the heavy sea; she was then in a sinking condition. Thomas Brassey, being in charge of the boat, distributed the oars to those who were unable to swim, and taking off his coat advised the others to do the same. The boat soon filled and turned over in the very rough sea, several men lost their oars, but Mr Brassey’s voice was heard encouraging them all.

The special act of rescue was that Harry Timworth’s oar was taken from him, and he was at once in a drowning condition. Mr Brassey, observing his state, swam to him, gave him his own oar, and supported him against the heavy waves till The Sunbeam’s boats arrived. At one time Mr Brassey lost hold of the man, and dived for him, regaining his grasp’ (Ref. R.H.S. Case No. 22,614; Acts of Gallantry, Vol. 2, p.36-37).

He was employed as Assistant Private Secretary to Earl Spencer when First Lord of the Admiralty; Assistant Secretary to the Royal Commission on Opium, 1894; contested the Epsom Division, Surrey, 1892; Christchurch, 1895 and 1900; Devonport, 1902. He raised the 69th Sussex Company Imperial Yeomanry, taking them to South Africa, and was the first Acting Civil Commissioner of Pretoria, 1900. In 1911, his father, Lord Brassey of Bulkeley (created 1886), was further created Earl Brassey and Thomas Allnutt Brassey received the courtesy title of Viscount Hythe. The Viscount was Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Kent Yeomanry and retired from the post in May 1914. With the onset of war he raised the 2nd Battalion West Kent Yeomanry, September-December 1914. He succeeded as 2nd Earl on the death of his father in February 1918, but he himself died on 12 November 1919. In addition to the above medals, the Viscount was a Knight of Grace of the Order of St. John and a Commander of the Italian Order of the Crown. An account of the rescue is given in The One That Did Not Get Away, by Bill Fevyer, L.S.A.R.S.J. No. 10, p.29-34. Sold with a quantity copied research and copied photographs.