Sir Charles Edward Bainbridge Brett,

KBE KBE may refer to: * Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, post-nominal letters * Knowledge-based engineering Knowledge-based engineering (KBE) is the application of knowledge-based systems technology to the domain o ...

, CBE (30 October 1928 - 19 December 2005), was a Northern Irish solicitor, journalist, author and founding member, and first chairman, of the

Ulster Architectural Heritage Society Ulster Architectural Heritage Society was founded "to promote appreciation and enjoyment of good architecture of all periods and encourage the conservation, restoration and re-use of Ulster's built heritage to regenerate and sustain our communitie ...

(UAHS). He was known to many simply as Charlie Brett.

Early life and education

Brett was born in Holywood,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, into a long line of

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

s, the family firm being ''L'Estrange and Brett'', based in Belfast. He was a partner in this firm from 1954 until 1994. He was educated at Aysgarth School, Rugby School and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, where he was President of the Poetry Society and was a friend of

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

Career

Between 1949 and 1950, he worked in France as a journalist with the ''Continental Daily Mail'', where he is said to have mixed in

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

and Trotskyite circles. In 1956, The 8th Earl of Antrim invited Brett to join the Northern Ireland Committee of the National Trust. On finding there were no books written to prepare himself for this, Brett resolved to write the necessary volumes.Obituary: Sir Charles Brett. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sir-charles-brett-520623 In 1967, he became the first chairman of the

(UAHS), founded with, amongst others, Lady Dunleath. Brett served as chairman for ten years and then as President from 1979 until his death. With the National Trust he put his legal skill to use in order to establish a public footpath along the cliffs of the North Coast of Ulster. He also sat on the board of the

Irish Architectural Archive The Irish Architectural Archive was established in 1976 by Dr Edward McParland and Nicholas Robinson as the National Trust Archive. Its objective is to collect and preserve material of every kind relating to the architecture of Ireland, and ma ...

in Dublin.

Later life

In 1971, he was appointed to the board of the newly created Northern Ireland Housing Executive. He served as Chairman for five years from 1979, during which time 50,000 dwellings were built. He was asked to compile a list of historic buildings in Jersey in 1975. In 1986, Brett became the first chairman of the

International Fund for Ireland The International Fund for Ireland is an independent international organisation established in 1986 by the British and Irish governments with the objectives of promoting "economic and social advance and to encourage contact, dialogue and reconcilia ...

, established to encourage investment in Ireland. Brett was also involved in Northern Irish politics, being chairman of the Northern Ireland Labour Party for a time In 1981 he was appointed a CBE. This was followed by a knighthood, as a

, in 1990. Brett was married and had three sons, and seven grandchildren. His church memorial is located alongside those of his family in the Comber Church of Ireland Parish Church of St. Mary, in Comber, North

Published works

His volumes, published under the name C.E.B. Brett, included books on the local architecture of the buildings of County Armagh, County Antrim and North

. What is perhaps his best known work, ''Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914'', was originally published by

Weidenfeld and Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

in London in 1967. In 1974, the National Trust of Guernsey invited Brett to carry out a similar architectural survey of St Peter Port in

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

to mark European Architectural Heritage Year in 1975, resulting in the publication of ''Buildings in the Town and Parish of St Peter Port''. The successful result was repeated for the island of

Alderney Alderney (; french: Aurigny ; Auregnais: ) is the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands. It is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown dependency. It is long and wide. The island's area is , making it the third-largest ...

in 1976, and Saint Helier in Jersey in 1977. He wrote one satirical volume under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

"Albert Rechts", which was an anagram of his name. He also wrote a volume titled ''Long Shadows Cast Before '', incorporating family history, political commentary and autobiography.

References

External links

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society

Bibliography

Obituary in "The Times"Obituary in "The Independent"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brett, Charles 1928 births 2005 deaths Solicitors from Northern Ireland People educated at Rugby School British architectural historians Irish architectural historians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Holywood, County Down Alumni of New College, Oxford Northern Ireland Labour Party politicians People educated at Aysgarth School