Constituency : Penryn and Falmouth 1880-5
Reginald took the second seat at Penryn and Falmouth for the Liberals.
Reginald was the son and heir of William Brett, Solicitor-General under Disraeli before becoming Master of the Rolls. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge.
Reginald was Hartington's parliamentary private secretary from 1882 to 1885.
In 1885 Reginald was defeated at Plymouth and decided to withdraw from electoral politics. He wrote to Chamberlain afterwards ,"if as a party we have no policy which can be distinguished from that of the Tories, there seems no adequate reason for putting us in office". He expected the 1885 parliament to be a conservative one.
Reginald did not want to choose a side in the Home Rule split and worked hard to reunify the party at the Round Table Conference in 1887.
In 1895 Reginald supported Rhodes over the Jameson Raid. That same year he became Permanent Secretary at the Office of Works.
In 1897 Reginald's father became Viscount Esher and Reginald succeeded him in the title two years later. He became a great favourite with the Royal Family particularly Edward VII.
He sat on Lord Elgin's Commission on the Boer War and irritated the Secretary for War John Broderick who felt he was being undermined.
Reginald was instrumental in setting up the Committee for Imperial Defence in 1904.
In 1912 Reginald helped his friend Lewis Harcourt establish the London Museum.
Reginald declined offers of office such as Viceroy of India or Secreatary for War ( which Edward VII urged him to accept. He spent much of the First World War in France reporting back on developments there.
Reginald was a bisexual and Matthew Parris has accused him both of gathering up Harcourt's supposed child porn collection after the latter's death and having relations with his own son Maurice and his schoolfriends..
He died in 1930.
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