| Brief Description |
This officer's sword with a half basket hilt and slightly curved, single fullered blade has has a gilt brass hilt with the crown and royal cipher of Queen Victoria within a cartouche.The grip is shagreen (sharkskin) and leather with a a twisted brass wire. On the ricasso (the unsharpened length of blade just above the guard) is a brass inset proof mark. A proof test is a form of stress test to assess the fitness of a load-bearing structure; historically, swords were proof tested by impact beforebeing issued.
This is one of a collection of three swords that belonged to and were used by Major Willoughby Brassey. Brassey was born on 31 August 1817 in Barking, Essex, England, the son of Richard John and Anne Ibbetson, and was baptised on 2 February 1818. He enlisted with the Army in 1842 as an ensign of the 2nd European Light Infantry, and immigrated to New Zealand where he served as a Major in the Taranaki Militia.
Brassey married Elizabeth Munhal in 1861 and they had the following children:
Adolphus Willoughby born 1861
Brownlow Ellen born 1863
Catherine born 1867
Grace Jane born 1869, died aged five months
Elizabeth Brassey died in 1870 aged 30 years. Willoughby went on to marry Frances Slattery in 1880 but no further children are recorded. He died in Westmere, Auckland, on 8 September 1907 aged 90 years.
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