Panning for Gold

Faces of the Gold Rush

What's the meaning?

You be the Judge...

Thompson River First Nations

MELBOURNE, VICTORIA,
9 May, 1859.

SIR--Referring to my recent verbal communication, I have now the honor of acquainting you that a person of the name of Whannell, who for some time held a situation in the Customs Department here, absconded from this Colony in the month of November, 1856, accompanied by the wife of a resident in Melbourne whose name I have not learned, leaving his own wife and family behind totally unprovided for.

Whannell was a private trooper in the Victoria Volunteer Yeomanry Corps under my command, and at the time of his enrolment represented himself as having been formerly in a light cavalry regiment in India, as to which I had some reason afterward for expressing my doubts in consequence of his ignorance of ordinary Cavalry exercise and field movements. Nothing whatever was heard of Whannell after his departure until very lately, when the following paragraph appeared in one of the Melbourne newspapers:-
"British Columbia.-His Excellency Governor Douglas has been pleased to appoint as Justice of the Peace at Fort Yale, Captain B. Whannell, of the Victoria Yeomanry Cavalry in Australia, late of the Nigaria Cavalry in the East Indies."

If Whannell represented himself to His Excellency Governor Douglas as having been a Captain or even a commissioned officer in the Victoria Yeomanry Cavalry he told a deliberate falsehood. The uniform of that Corps is a very expensive one, that of the ranks being mounted with gold lace precisely the same as a commissioned officer, and I have no doubt that this has assisted Whannell in some measure, if he appeared in that uniform, in imposing upon the Governor with the tale of being a commissioned officer.

I deem it my duty, as commanding officer of the Royal Victoria Yeomanry Corps, that some steps for the purpose of making known to Governor Douglas that Whannell is an absconder, and that if he has represented himself to His Excellency Governor Douglas as having held a Commission in the Victoria Yeomanry Corps (now called " Royal " by Her Majesty's permission) he (Whannell) has been guilty of falsehood and wilful imposition. Under these circumstances it has occurred to me that the most direct course would be to communicate the facts to His Excellency Governor Douglas thro the office of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, but of course I defer to your better judgment in such matters.

Herewith I beg leave to forward for your further information a letter addressed to me from the Customs Department of date 27 ult., mentioning the precise date of Whannell's departure and of his subsequent dismissal from the service by the Governor in Council.

Whannell's name was erased from the roll of members of the Royal Victoria Yeomanry Corps, he having been reported as an absconder and absent without leave.

I have the honor, etc.,
(Signed) JAS. H. Ross,
Lt. Col. Commanding R.V.Y.C.
C. Standish, Esq., Chief Commissioner of Police, Melbourne.

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