Lord Thomas Brassey was the son of an English railway magnate and therefore independently wealthy. He was the Earl of Brassey of Bulkeley, a member of the British parliament and a Lord of the Admiralty, later to become the Governor of Victoria, Australia. He was very supportive of immigration and development of British colonies - Canada, Australia and elsewhere. When Major W.R. Bell's Qu'Appelle Valley Farming Company went bankrupt in 1890, 7,000 acres were transferred to Brassey's Canadian Co-operative Colonization Company which proceeded to farm the land, managed by A.C. McLane, under the name of the "Sunbeam Farm", named after Brassey's Yacht. Lord Brassey visited Indian Head in person on October 1, 1894. After that, Brassey money was provided to build a new Anglican church, a bishop's residence, a creamery, a reading room and a cottage hospital, while the farm was divested to individual farmers (see Indian Head History Book pp 63-66). Lord Brassey was also a major supporter of the Dr. Barnardo Homes.