Born Aug 12th, 1803, and was gazetted Assistant Surgeon, Bengal Army, on September 22nd, 1825; Surgeon on October 15th, 1840, and retired on January 23rd, 1844. Whilst he was in the service he acted as Surgeon to the Hospital of Surgery at Calcutta, to the Government Ophthalmic Institution, as Professor of Ophthalmic Surgery at the Calcutta Medical College, and as Surgeon to the Bodyguard of the Governor-General of India. He passed the College of Fort William in the Arabic and Persian languages, was a member of the Medical and Physical Society of Calcutta, and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. He retired to the Crescent, Jersey, when he left the Bengal Army, but soon settled in London, first in Brompton Square, and before 1847 at 44 Curzon Street, Mayfair. He practised in London as a consulting surgeon, and was Surgeon to the Western Ophthalmic Institution at 22 Dorset Street, Portman Square. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Assistant Surgeoncy at Westminster Hospital in 1846 when Benjamin Phillips (qv) was promoted, and Barnard Holt (qv) was elected on the retirement of Anthony White. Feelings ran high during the contest, and Brett challenged W R Basham, one of the physicians at Westminster Hospital, to a duel. He was bound over to keep the peace. In the same year Brett had been adjudged bankrupt, and these two incidents probably prevented his election as a Fellow of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society when he became a candidate. He was appointed Field Surgeon to the Army in the Crimea, but apparently never took up the duty or left England. He died on December 10th, 1859, having long lived in retirement. Publications: *A Political Essay on some of the Principal Surgical Diseases of India*, 8vo, 16 plates, Calcutta, 1840. *Washhouses, Baths and a due Supply of Wholesomely Cooked Food, at the Cheapest Possible Rate for the Poor*, 12mo, London, 1847. *A Lecture on the Eye* (pointing out a more rational practice and safer mode of operating, based on the experience of seventeen years’ practice in many thousands of operations and innumerable cases in India, to which is added an account of the first series of surgical operations performed on the eye without pain under the influence of the vapour of sulphuric ether), 8vo, London, 1847. *The Gems of Tuscany*, 1852. *Lecture on Ambulances, Barracks and Tents*, 8vo, London, 1855. *Letter to the Duke of Newcastle* (respecting his proposed mission to the seat of war to succour the sick and wounded), 8vo, 1855. Brett also translated Civiale on Lithotrity and contributed many papers to the *Lancet*, the *Indian Med. Jour.*, the *Trans. Calcutta Med. and Physical Soc.,* the *Trans. Roy. Med.-Chir. Soc.* (On tumours; the health of Europeans in India; lithotomy; lithotrity; leprosy; rhinoplastic operations; hare-lip; Dracunculus; camel litters for the sick of armies, etc.)