Ernst Brasche

Ernst Brasche was the son of a Lutheran clergyman in Estonia. In Tallinn, he graduated from the Imperial Nikolai I Gymnasium in 1893. He studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the Tallinn University until 1899. While working at the Käsmu Maritime School, he married the opera singer Marta Matilda Dsirne in 1903, by whom he had three daughters.

During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Brasche was a doctor with the Russian Red Cross in Harbin, China. In World War I, he worked as a chief surgeon in a hospital in St. Petersburg from 1915 and returned to Estonia after the revolution. He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus and the Order of St. Anna for his services in World War I. In the subsequent War of Independence (1919-20), he joined the Estonian Defence League to serve at the 2nd Tallinn Military Hospital and remained there until 1925. Eventually, he worked as a private ear, nose and throat specialist in Tallinn and Haapsalu.

While working at the Käsmu Maritime School, Brasche started sailing and joined the Estonian Maritime Yacht Club. In St. Petersburg he became a member of the St. Petersburg Imperial River Yacht Club and was a member of the crew of the “Gallia II” in the 10-metre class at the 1912 Olympic Games. In the match race for the second place they lost to the Finnish yacht “Nina” to win bronze.

His other love was playing chess. A member of the University Chess Club, he won the Tartu and 1901 Tallinn chess tournaments. After a long break, he returned to the chessboards after the wars and was the first Tallinn chess champion in 1921 and bronze medallist at the 1923 Estonian championships.