Park, a baroque house situated in an estate of northeast of Oxford as a wedding present for his third son, Albert. On 8 December 1870 Thomas Brassey died from a brain haemorrhage in Victoria Hotel, St Leonards and was buried in the churchyard of St Laurence's Church, Catsfield, Sussex where a memorial stone has been erected. His estate was valued at £5,200,000 which consisted of "under £3,200,000 in UK" and "over £2,000,000" in a trust fund. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes him as "one of the wealthiest of the self-made Victorians". Thomas Brassey, the man It is not easy to be objective about the nature of Thomas Brassey's character because the earliest biography by Helps was commissioned by the Brassey family and the latest, rather short, biography was written by his great-great-grandson, Tom Stacey. There is virtually no remaining material of value to a biographer available today. There is no private correspondence, there are no diaries and none of his personal reminiscences. Judging by his achievements alone, he must have been a remarkable man. He had enormous drive, an ability to remain calm despite enormous pressures, and extreme skill in organisation. He was a man of honour who always kept his word and his promise. He had no interest in public honours and refused invitations to stand for Parliament. Although he accepted honours from France and Austria, he mislaid the medals and had to request duplicates to please his wife. His great-great-grandson considers that he was successful because he inspired people rather than drove them. Walker, in his 1969 biography, tried to make an accurate assessment of Brassey using Helps and other sources. He found it difficult to discover anyone who had a bad word to say about him, either during his life or since. Brassey expected a high standard of work from his employees; Cooke states that his "standards of quality were fastidious in the extreme". There can be no doubt about some of his qualities. He was exceptionally hardworking, and had an excellent memory and ability to perform mental arithmetic. He was a good judge of men, which enabled him to select the best people to be his agents. He was scrupulously fair with his subcontractors and kind to his navvies, supporting them financially at their times of need. He would at times undertake contracts of little benefit to himself to provide work for his navvies.