Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Brand, Henry Bouverie William
BRAND, The Right Hon. Sir Henry Bouverie William, G.C.B., M.P., Speaker of the House of Commons, is the second son of the 21st Baron Dacre, by the second daughter of the late Hon. and Very Rev. Maurice Crosbie, Dean of Limerick, and brother and heir presumptive to the present Baron. He was born in Dec., 1814. For some time he was private secretary to Sir George Grey. In July, 1852, he obtained a seat in the House of Commons as one of the members for Lewes, which borough he continued to represent till December, 1868, and since then he has sat for the county of Cambridge. In Feb., 1858, Mr. Brand was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal to the Prince of Wales, but he only held the office for a few weeks. He held the office of Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from June, 1859, to July, 1866. In 1859 Mr. Brand succeeded Sir W. Hayter, senior "whip" of the Liberal party, and he discharged the duties of that important and laborious office with unflagging energy and zeal for a period of nine years. When Mr. Denison, afterwards Viscount Ossington, vacated the Speaker's chair, Mr. Brand was nominated by the Government to succeed him, and he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons without opposition in Feb., 1872. At first some hon. members entertained misgivings as to whether a gentleman who had been so peculiarly identified for many years with the interests of one political party in the State would preside with due impartiality over the discussions of the House of Commons; but all such doubts were soon set at rest by the conduct of the right hon. gentleman, who has discharged the duties of his high office to the satisfaction alike of Liberals and Conservatives. The most conclusive proof of this is, that when a new Parliament was elected, and the Conservatives were placed in power, Mr. Brand was again elected Speaker without opposition in March, 1874. He was elected Speaker for the third time April 29, 1880. At the close of the Session of 1881 the Queen conferred on him the dignity of the Civil Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. The Speaker of the House of Commons is the first commoner of the realm, and ranks next after barons. His emolument consists of a furnished house in the New Palace of Westminster, and a salary of £5000 a year. Sir Henry Brand's name for some years came frequently before the public in connexion with a scheme for the amelioration of the condition of the agricultural labourers on his estate at Glynde, in Sussex. Sir Henry Brand is a magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for Sussex, and married, in 1838, Eliza, daughter of General Robert Ellice, by whom he has had a large family. His eldest son is one of the members for Stroud, and was formerly M.P. for Hertfordshire.