He was educated at Rugby and University College, Oxford, and was called to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn, in 1864.

Brassey was briefly Member of Parliament (MP) for Devonport in 1865,[2] winning the seat at a by-election in June and then losing it again the general election in July.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1881[7] and raised to the peerage as Baron Brassey, of Bulkeley in the County of Chester, in 1886.

[13] Brassey is remembered in Australia's national capital, Canberra, with Brassey House, now a hotel (originally a guest house) in the inner suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory, completed in 1927 to coincide with the relocation of the Federal Parliament from Melbourne to Canberra.

Brassey House originally offered 45 rooms with shared bathing facilities, for the exclusive use of members of parliament and mid-level government officials relocating to Canberra.

In 1859 he acquired the 120-ton iron yacht Albatross, designed by his friend St Clare John Byrne and built at his father's Canada Works.

[15] Between 6 July 1876 and 27 May 1877 Brassey circumnavigated the world in his steam-assisted three-masted brigantine Sunbeam, another yacht designed for him by St Clare Byrne.

His son Thomas left the Sunbeam at Rio de Janeiro in order to return to school in England.

His wife Anna, Lady Brassey (1839–1887), published an account of the cruise called In The Trades, The Tropics, & The Roaring Forties, or alternatively A Voyage in the Sunbeam: Our Home on the Ocean For Eleven Months.

At the age of 79 Brassey sailed his yacht Sunbeam to Moudros Bay as a hospital ship for the Gallipoli campaign.

He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the successor unit, the 2nd Cinque Ports Artillery Volunteers on 2 December 1891.

The third daughter, Lady Muriel Agnes, married Gilbert Sackville, 8th Earl De La Warr, and was the mother of Herbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr, while the fourth daughter, Lady Marie Adelaide, married Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon.