HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-06-30, Page 107;ite of
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William Bennett Rich
Escaped deat
loved gay life
In the final phase of t
tttle of Waterloo. the Du
f Wellington shouted "U
ards, and at them!" -
learned long ago
ntarioschool readers.
One. of the officers who led
eGrenadier Guards in that
barge against the French
ould be a young man from
eni, William Bennett Rich.
ellington lost five senior -
liners that day - Sunday,
one Ib, IRI:, - but Rich, then
,escaped unharmed, so far
now known, Certainly he
ed for half -century Longer
d died in his bed at
ellesley House (203
hthouse Street) in
rich. He was 73.
oung Rich had bee
missioned in the Guards
181.3, After Waterloo and
beginning; of a long peace
left the service. as did
any other officers.. H
Red a gay life in London
th an attractive wife,
rah, a member of the
ealthy Cobh family.
he got deeply in debt and
r a long time was assjsted
his wife's " family, but.
idently there was a con -
sus that he ought to
grate to Canada, which he
d in 1833, Rich and his
ready considerable family
ode their way, not to any
tyor large town in the new
nd, but to the backwoods
ttlement • of Goderich,
unded only six years
rlier.
The ' reason . for this
stination, involving a long
d uncomfortable overland
urney, COn only be con-
tured. Rich may have
own the' noted Dr. Jack
rZars. uncle of Postmaster
f Galt, who spent the
y Years of his life in
he Goderich: graduated in
ke medicine in London and
p, Edinburgh, and served with
as distinction in the Crimean
i� War,. Dr. Lizars came back to
Goderich in 1856, practised
for a time and then went to
Toronto. where he died in
18 5,
Another reason, possibly,
was that Goderich was
headquarters of the Canada
Company, engaged in settling
its million -acre Huron Tract.
and Rich may have expected
employment with it.
Four years after his
arrival. he wrote to his
brother Robert. in England,
that the rentals from some
houses . he owned were in-
n sufficient to support him, and
in 1844 reported that through
"paltry economy" on the part
of the Canada Company he
had lost a situation paying
He
1.000 a year,
Many years later, in the •
obituary of Lucy Bennett
Widder. •-a daughter, it was
stated that Rich had been
"in the Canada Company," so
the probability is that he got
hack on the payroll even
tually.
I
FARED THE SCOTCH
He added that Goderich
was about to become a
district town and that he had
hopes of appointment as
sheriff, but feared the in-
fluence of the "Scotch fac-
tion, without Scotch M.P.P.
(Capt, Robert Dunlop) at
their head." His fears were
well founded: the first sheriff
of the district, appointed in
184I, was Henry Hyndman,
from Ayrshire.
Rich wrote at this time that
he might have received help
Turn to page 68•
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Page 67
A Sainte to
Good Neighbours
Best Wishes to Goderich 1827-1977
On your Sesquicentennial
From all of us at Anstett Jewellers.
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