Constituency : Devonport 1865, Hastings 1868-86
Thomas came in at Devonport in June 1865 to replace Arthur Buller who had switched to Liskeard. This was the last by-election of the 1859-65 Parliament.
Thomas was the son of the famous railway contractor of the same name. He was educated at Rugby and Oxford and became a barrister.
Thomas was defeated in the general election of 1865. He returned for Hastings three years later. He presided over the first day of the 1874 Co-Operative Congress.
In 1880 Gladstone appointed him Civil Lord of the Admiralty then moved him to Parliamentary Secretary in 1884. He and his wife often entertained Gladstone and the Cabinet.
Thomas retired from the Commons in 1886 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Brassey. He then served as a lord-in-waiting from 1893 to 1895. In 1893 he headed the Royal Opium Commission.
In 1895 Thomas was appointed Governor of Victoria and served till 1900. In 1911 he was uplifted to Earl Brassey.
Thomas was a keen yachtsman and in 1877 completed what is thought to be the first circumnavigation of the globe by private yacht. In 1884 he started The Naval Annual . In 1915 he sailed his yacht to Mudros Bay to serve as a hospital ship in the Gallipoli campaign.
He died in 1918 aged 82.
That concludes our look at the MPs who came in during the lifetime of the 1859-65 parliament and move on to the 1865 general election, the last held under the post-1832 settlement. The Tories grumbled that the Liberals were campaigning on a false prospectus given the state of Palmerston's health but it was no use and the Liberals saw a modest increase in their majority, Palmerston's final gift to the party. As before we'll move down from Scotland in covering the new Liberals of 1865.
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