Antonio Brady
Antonio Brady (1811-1881)
1881 Obituary [1]
Sir ANTONIO BRADY, who died suddenly on Monday, December 12, from heart complaint, was the eldest son of the late Mr. Antonio Brady, of the Royal William Victualling Yard, Plymouth, and was born in 1811.
After serving as a junior clerk in the Victualling Yard at Deptford, and afterwards at Plymouth and Portsmouth, he was promoted to head-quarters at Somerset House, and, in 1854, became head of the Contract Office, and registrar of public securities. When that office was re-organised, deceased was made the first superintendent of the new purchase and contract department.
On his retirement from the service in 1870, Mr. Brady received the honour of knighthood. During the last ten years, Sir Antonio devoted himself very largely to works of public usefulness and benevolence, and the preservation of the Forest of Epping for the public was one of many important movements in which his services were of great value.
In the work of scientific societies Sir Antonio also took a very active interest. He was a Fellow of the Geographical Society, a member of the Society of Arts, President of the Inventors' Institute, and a member of the Iron and Steel Institute. In the latter capacity he described (Journal, 1875, p. 147) some of the mineral fields he had seen in the United States during three separate visits that he made to that country between 1872 and 1875. This was the only occasion upon which Sir Antonio took part in the deliberations of the Institute, although he was a constant attender at both the spring and autumn, meetings; and only shortly before his death he was present at a meeting of London members, called to make arrangements for the recent metropolitan meeting.