[edit] Dysentery or Alcoholism
I've read several accounts of Seymour's death. Dehydration by dysentery was the medical outcome, but most histories point to his chronic alcoholism. I'll compile some quotes of these accounts later and we'll see what we can stitch together from them. Somewhere in my readings, maybe in the Akriggs but I can't remember, I remarked upon the reality that the day-to-day government of the colony was administered by Birch, Seymour's secretary; Seymour went abroad (UK I think) for 18 months during his tenure; Birch ran the show, which as the historian I was reading pointed out was probably a good thing because, other than being a very courtly gentleman, Seymour was ill-suited to the job and not a leader or any kind; and his alcoholism was more of a liability than anything else.....dying of dehydration at Bella Coola seems somehow ironic, given all the rainfall there (water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink). Could be that the old guy just needed a mickey and he would have made it back to Victoria just fine.....Skookum1 22:36, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
- I had not heard that. I gather from the accounts that Seymour didn't really have the stomach for the job, and performed his duties either sloppily, poorly, or lazily. I hadn't considered "drunkenly" as an option. I think he probably found the BC colonists considerably less pliable and more demanding than the plantation owners of the British West Indies. I also thought dying in Bella Coola was ironic - one of BC's last colonial governors dying in the spot where the first major expedition opening up the country reached its climax almost 80 years earlier. Fishhead64 04:55, 5 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Dead in photo?
Also heard somewhere that the guy was already dead when that photo of him was taken, (they hadn't got an official photo by the time he died, apparently). Will have to re-research that before adding mention of such rumour.--Keefer4 08:43, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
- If so, he's very carefully posed. Another version of the same photo has him holding a book. I'm not sure wheteher two photos were taken, or whether there was some primitive photoshopping involved. Fishhead64 16:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
