Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 January 12

= January 12 =

Milsom
Who is Consul Milsom mentioned here?KAVEBEAR (talk) 05:40, 12 January 2020 (UTC)


 * There is an E. L. G. Milsom listed as US Consul for Béni Saf in French Algeria, in Uncle Sam Abroad By J. E. Conner (1900) (about ¾ the way down under "Appendix - CONSULAR SERVICE"). Also Register containing a list of persons employed in the department and in the diplomatic, consular and territorial service of the United States, with maps showing where the ministers and consuls are resident abroad : also a list of the diplomatic officers and consuls of foreign countries resident within the United States (1892) p. 16 has his start date in Béni Saf as April 27, 1891. Not sure if this is the same bloke, but its not a common surname and the ability to speak French would be required for a posting either in the French Pacific islands or Algeria. Alansplodge (talk) 14:44, 12 January 2020 (UTC)


 * I accessed the The Log of an Island Wanderer at archive.org (I couldn't view any text at Google books) and the author is talking about one "W. H. Milsom, Esq.", British Consul in Papeete. There's quite a bit more on this Milsom there. ---Sluzzelin talk  14:47, 12 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Well done! The first mention of him is on page 93: "a man of the very mildest type" (if you click "See other formats" you get a searchable page-view screen which is much easier to navigate). Alansplodge (talk) 14:54, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

When was Milsom Consul in Papeete, Tahiti? And when was Robert Teesdale Simon (here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Humanities/2019_December_23#British_consul_of_Tahiti_sent_to_Raiatea) Consul in Tahiti? Trying to understand who was the British Consul during the time of the annexation of the Leeward Islands from 1887 to 1897. And if both then when each served? KAVEBEAR (talk) 05:59, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Not so. If we were to trust Edwin Pallander, they'd rather been both served - for dinner, in the shape of two well roasted "long pigs", following EP's expression. The name of Milsom will have been used for a satirical representation of Simon in The Log of (..). See, for a reference EricR's first link in  that previous discussion you referred to. There is not in it any mention of a diplomatic expedition involving both naval force display and a consul named Milson. Neither Edwin Pallander's tale is presented as that of a whistle-blower. --Askedonty (talk) 07:39, 14 January 2020 (UTC)
 * So Milsom refers to Simons? KAVEBEAR (talk) 16:02, 15 January 2020 (UTC)