Career

He served as Governor of the Bank of England between 1887 and 1889, and was made a baronet on 12 June 1888 in connection with his services in converting the National Debt (retirement of Consols). He was also a Lieutenant for the City of London. He opened the London branch of a Liverpool bank, Brown, Shipley & Company, (later Brown Brothers & Harriman, one of the most powerful banks in modern American history), in 1864, and died as senior partner of that bank.

In 1866, he became a director of the Bank of England, then its Deputy Governor and finally its Governor, remaining a director until his death in 1905.

They had three children, of whom one was Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet. Collet married firstly Susannah (or Susan) Gertrude Eyre (d 22 July 1851 Liverpool, aged 29), youngest daughter of the Review

James Eyre, by whom he had a daughter Lina Susan Penelope Collet. Her eldest son became the Right Honorary

Montagu Collet Norman, later Lord Norman, Privy Councillor, Governor of the Bank of England from 1920 to 1944.

Another son was Ronald Collet Norman. By a second or later marriage, he had a son Sir Mark Edimann Collet (1864–1944).