Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher

Reginald Baliol Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher, GCVO, KCB, PC, DL (30 June 1852 – 22 January 1930) was a historian and Liberal politician in the United Kingdom, although his greatest influence over military and foreign affairs was as a courtier, member of public committees and behind-the-scenes "fixer", or rather éminence grise.

Reginald, known as Regy, Brett was the son of William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher and Eugénie Mayer (1814–1904). Born in London, Esher remembered sitting on the lap of an old man who had played violin for Marie Antoinette, and was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He held a militia commission after Cambridge. His father, who was Solicitor-General in the Disraeli's ministry, distinguished himself in the 1867 Reform Act debate dutifully supporting the triumphant Disraeli. Baliol Brett was an expert on northern politics; being Yorkshire born and bred he was for many years the MP for Bradford. In 1876 he was a Lord Justice, later elevated as a Baron and raised to the bench by Lord Salisbury. A distinguished common law judge, he was Master of Rolls for 1897, when created first Viscount Esher. "Regy"'s mother was a French émigrée, who had arrived in England, after being expelled for supporting Bonaparte. A refugee she was adopted by the Duke of Wellington's secretary John Gurwood. She was the famous jejeune captivated in Disraeli's novel Coningsby. The happy couple met for the romantic bohemian Tory set at Longleat House and, at the home of the society hostess Countess Blessington.

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