HENRY JAMYN BROOKS (BRITISH, 1839-1925) (4)

together with the Bestowel Vellum Baronet and Grant of Arms, signed by Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty (Garter) and George Edward Cokayne (Clarenceaux), dated 22nd December 1904, both held in the original cases

Footnote
Flannery had a remarkably varied career, working as an engineer, naval architect and later both a Liberal Unionist and Conservative politician.  Born in Liverpool, son of John Flannery who captained the John MacVicar ship which regularly sailed between Liverpool and Sydney, Flannery was educated at the Liverpool College of Science before attending Victoria University in Manchester, which had been established by Royal Charter in 1880.

Following his graduation, Flannery worked as an apprentice at the Britannia engineering firm in Birkenhead, where he won the Derby prize, competed for by engineering students in Liverpool.  He furthered his experience under Sir Edward Reid who later became Chief Constructor for the Royal Navy.  He then founded the marine engineering firm Flannery, Baggally & Johnson which would go on to hold offices in London, Liverpool and Rotterdam.  Flannery was President of the Railway Clerks association between 1900-1906, President of the Institute of Marine Engineers in 1914 and, in 1931, President of the Society of Consulting  Engineers and a director of Barclays Bank.  He was appointed Justice of the Peace on two occasions, for Surrey in 1892 and for Kent in 1895 and first stood for parliament in 1895, winning the seat of Shipley, West Yorkshire, which he held until the 1906 general election.  By the 1910 he had joined the Conservative party and returned to parliament as MP for Maldon in Essex, a seat which he retained in the 1923 election.

Flannery was knighted in 1899 and created 1^st Baronet of Wethersfield Manor, Esssex in 1904.  In 1882 he married Edith Mary Emma Jenkyn of Ealing (b.1857) and their son, Harold was born the following year.  They went on to have two daughters, Kathleen Edith and Enid Fortescue.  On 8^th July 1916 Enid married 2^nd Lt. David Crawford Moore Lindsay, grandparents of the present owners.

Henry Jamyn Brooks was a London-based portrait painter who recorded a number of highly significant events during his career.  In 1888 he painted ‘The Private View of the Old Masters Exhibition at the Royal Academy’, featuring no less than sixty-six people including such luminaries as Millais, Holman Hunt, Alma-Tadema, Burne-Jones as well as Alfred de Rothschild and Prime Minister William Gladstone.  Brooks also included critic John Ruskin even though he did not attend the event and the finished work was donated to the National Portrait Gallery in 1919.  He received a couple of Royal commissions including ‘Queen Victoria at the reception for county councils and mayors’, an event which formed part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations, as well as ‘Queen Victoria’s Last Ceremony’ depicting her receiving Lord Roberts following his return from Africa.