| This cabinet photograph is identified on the reverse as Jelinger Symons of the Royal Marine Light Infantry. Jelinger Henry Symons was born about 1836 the son of Commander William Symons, RN and Mary Ann. He married his wife Annie in 1864. The young man pictured with Symons may well be his nephew George Hyatt who was listed as living in the Symons household in the 1891 British Census. Symons died at the ripe old age of 85 in 1925. Hart's Army List of 1885 gives the following information about Captain Jelinger Henry Symons, Royal Marines: Cornet, 2nd Lieutenant or Ensign - 3 August, 1853 Lieutenant - 21 October,1854 Captain - 10 December, 1863 Major - 23 October 1875 Retired on pension or retired pay Symons served in the Baltic Campaign (1854) during the Crimean War. The British Census of 1861 shows Symons as a First Lieutenant serving aboard the 24-gun wooden screw frigate HMS Topaze at Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. While in British Columbia the crew of the Topaze built the still standing Race Rock Lighthouse. Officers and men of the Topaze also acted in a police capacity, preventing the looting of the wrecked Hudson's Bay ship Nanette. Symons was probably still a member of the Topaze's company when the ship laid a bronze tablet in 1863 at the Juan Fernández Islands commemorating the stay of marooned sailor Alexander Selkirk and then later when she visited Easter Island in 1868 the removed the Moai Moai Hava and Hoa Hakananai'a which now reside in the British Museum. Cabinet Photograph F. G. Steggles - Photographer Shepton Mallet & Midsomer Norton. England c. 1900 |
