Benjamin Bathurst (diplomat)

Infobox Person
name = Benjamin Bathurst


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birth_date = March 18 1784
birth_place = London, United Kingdom
death_date = 1809?
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nationality = British
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occupation = Diplomatic envoy
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spouse = Phillida Call
children =
parents = Henry Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich

Benjamin Bathurst (March 18 1784 - 1809?) was a British diplomatic envoy who disappeared in Germany during the Napoleonic Wars. He was the third son of Henry Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich.cite book | last = Bathurst | first = Henry | authorlink = Henry Bathurst | coauthors = | title = Memoirs of the Late Dr. Henry Bathurst, Lord Bishop of Norwich | publisher = A.J. Valpy | date = 1837 | location = London | pages = | url = http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=8tcKAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22henry+bathurst%22+%22bishop+of+norwich%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=5xO842CxFL&sig=OIja1aF5OUZ53inj-PJFeOhMnVo | doi = | id = | isbn = ]

Career

Benjamin Bathurst entered the diplomatic service at an early age and was promoted to the post of Secretary of the British Legation at Leghorn. In 1805 he married Phillida Call, daughter of Sir John Call, a Cornish landowner and baronet.

In 1809, he was despatched to Vienna as an envoy by his relative Henry Bathurst, pro tempore Secretary for Foreign Affairs. His mission was to assist in the reconstruction of Britain and Austria's alliance and to try to encourage Emperor Francis II to declare war on France, which the Emperor did in April.

However, the Austrians were forced to abandon Vienna to the French forces and eventually sued for peace after they were badly defeated by the French at the Battle of Wagram in July 1809. Bathurst was promptly recalled to London and decided that the safest route was to travel north and take ship from Hamburg.

Disappearance

On 25 November 1809, Bathurst and his German courier, a Herr Krause, who were travelling by chaise under the aliases of "Baron de Koch" and "Fischer" respectively, stopped at the town of Perleberg, west of Berlin.

After ordering fresh horses at the post house, Bathurst and his companion walked to a nearby inn, the White Swan. After ordering an early dinner, Bathurst is said to have spent several hours writing in a small room set aside for him at the inn. The travellers' departure was delayed and it was not until 9 pm that they were told that the horses were about to be harnessed to their carriage. Bathurst immediately left his room, followed shortly afterwards by Krause, who was surprised to find Bathurst was not in the chaise when he reached it and indeed was nowhere to be found.

The disappearance did not create much excitement at the time, since the country was infested with bandits, stragglers from the French army, and German revolutionaries. Additionally, murders and robberies were so common that the loss of one commercial traveller (which Bathurst was travelling as) was barely noticed, especially since at the time there were hardly any legal authorities in Prussia.

News of Bathurst's disappearance did not reach England for some weeks, until Krause managed to reach Hamburg and take ship for England. In December Bathurst's father, the Bishop of Norwich, received a summons from Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington) to attend him at Apsley House, where Wellesley informed the Bishop of his son's disappearance.

Bathurst's wife Phillida immediately left for Germany to search for her husband, accompanied by the explorer Heinrich Röntgen. They arrived at Perleberg to find that the authorities had been looking into the affair and that a Captain von Klitzing had been put in charge of the investigation. A search of Perleberg found a pair of breeches in a copse which Mrs. Bathurst identified as belonging to her husband. A reward of 500 thalers was offered for any news and money was paid to members of the local police to expedite matters. This, however, caused the waters to be muddied as many false reports and offers of information were made by people seeking a share of the reward.

In March, Mrs. Bathurst had the entire area of Perleberg searched at vast expense, which included the use of trained dogs, but to no avail. She then travelled to Berlin and then Paris to see Napoleon himself, hoping to obtain from him some account of her husband's fate. However, when she was received by Napoleon, he declared his ignorance of the affair and offered his assistance.

Contemporary press reports

By January 1810, the English and French press had become aware of the affair and had begun to discuss it. The Times published a piece which subsequently appeared in other English newspapers [cite journal | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = A Mysterious Crime | journal = Littell's Living Age | volume = XIX | issue = | pages = pp. 231–234 | publisher = Littell, Son, and Company | location = Boston | date = 1862 | url = http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7AHWRIOM-vYC&printsec=titlepage | format = | issn = | accessdate = 2008-02-03 ] :

The French government were agitated by the accusation that they had kidnapped or murdered Bathurst and replied in their official journal, Le Moniteur Universel:

1852 discovery

On 15 April 1852, during the demolition of a house on the Hamburg road in Perleberg three hundred paces from the White Swan, a skeleton was discovered under the threshold of the stable. The back of the skull showed a fracture as though from the blow of a heavy instrument. All of the upper teeth were perfect, but one of the lower molars showed signs of having been removed by a dentist. The owner of the house, a mason named Kiesewetter, had purchased the house in 1834 from Christian Mertens, who had been a serving man at the White Swan during the period when Bathurst disappeared.

Bathurst's sister, Mrs. Thistlethwaite, travelled to Perleberg but could not conclusively say whether the skull belonged to her brother or not.

Recent investigation

A detailed investigation conducted by writer Mike Dash [cite web | last = Dash | first = Mike | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The Disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst | work = | publisher = mikedash.com | date = | url = http://www.mikedash.com/investigations_bathurst_paper.htm | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2008-02-03] first published in "Fortean Times" [Citation | last = Dash | first = Mike | author-link = | last2 = | first2 = | author2-link = | title = The Disappearance of Benjamin Bathurst | newspaper = Fortean Times | pages = pp. 40 - 44 | issue = 54 | year = | date = Summer 1990 | url = ] concluded that the allegedly mysterious details of the Bathurst disappearance had been greatly exaggerated over the years, and that Bathurst was almost certainly murdered.

References in pop culture

Bathurst's case is mentioned by Charles Fort in his book "Lo!".

In science fiction

*In H. Beam Piper's 1948 science fiction story "He Walked Around the Horses", Bathurst slips into an alternate history timeline where the American Revolution and the French Revolution were both suppressed and there were no Napoleonic Wars. In that alternate world Bathurst has a doppelganger serving as the Royal Governor of Georgia, there still a British colony. The Bathurst from our timeline is judged to be either insane, or a spy, and so imprisoned. He attempts escape and is fatally shot. His last testament is read by a high ranking British officer, who pronounces it a work of madness. He is especially puzzled by references to a "Duke of Wellington". The officer is revealed to be Sir Arthur Wellesley.
*The short novel "Time Echo" by Lionel Roberts (a pseudonym of Lionel Fanthorpe). has Bathurst accidentally transported to a future time where his hatred of Napoleon makes him join with conspirators seeking to overthrow a cruel future conqueror and tyrant.
*Avram Davidson's "Masters of the Maze", has Bathurst as one of a select group of humans (and other sentient beings) who had penetratred to the center of a mysterious "Maze" traversing all of space and time. There he dwells in eternal repose, in company with the Biblical Enoch, the Chinese King Wen and Lao Tze, the Greek Appolonius of Tyanna, and various other sages of the past and future, some of them Martians.
*Bathurst's disappearance is also mentioned in passing in Robert Heinlein's short story "Elsewhen" and Simon Hawke's "TimeWars" series.

In music

Bathurst is also one of the people suspected to be "Benjamin Breeg" from the song "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" by British heavy metal group Iron Maiden.

ee also

*Napoleonic Wars
*List of people who have disappeared

Notes

External links

* [http://www.mikedash.com/investigations_bathurst_about.htm Non-paranormal theories about what happened.]
*
* [http://hbpiper.wikispaces.com/He+Walked+Around+the+Horses "He Walked Around the Horses" in the The H. Beam Piper Encyclopedia]