The People: Public Servants |
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Cecil Edward Denny was born in Hampshire. In 1874 he went to Canada where he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He rose to the rank of Inspector in the RCMP and was a signatory of Treaty 7 with the Blackfoot (Siksika), Blood, Peigan, Sarcee (Tsuu T'ina), and Stoney in Alberta in 1877.
Denny was placed in charge of western native peoples during the Riel rebellion in 1885. Denny donated several items, including a magnificent shirt and leggings that had belonged to Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot. Placed on loan by his sister in 1878, they were purchased from Cecil Denny 1904.
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Visit
the First
Nations and Métis site to find out more about Blackfoot and Crowfoot.
Percy Nightingale donated a sizeable collection of 47 items from what was then “British Kaffraria” in July 1878. He was a career colonial officer, beginning as a volunteer in the Kaffir war of 1850-51. He became clerk to the resident magistrate at Port Elizabeth in 1854. By 1871, he had taken up the post of Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate of the Victoria East division of the Eastern Cape.
Many items were collected in the Keiskamma Hoek area, including a number of surrendered spears, also beadwork, smoking pipes and snuff bottles.
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William Ninnis Porter was educated in Cambridge, at Gonville and Caius College. He entered the Burma service in 1870. In 1880 he was made District Superintendent of Police and Assistant Commissioner in 1886. In 1890 he became Deputy Commissioner and in 1904, Commissioner. He was also Political Officer in the 3rd Burma War of 1885 - 93.
He retired from government service in 1905. Porter served in WWI and was severely wounded at the Battle of Loos in 1915. He was invalided from the army in 1919 on account of ill health caused by his wounds.
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Born in 1835 in Bideford, Edgar Dewdney went to Victoria, British Columbia in 1859. He spent 12 years as a civil engineer and road builder. Dewdney became Commissioner for Indian Affairs in the Northwest Territories of Canada in 1879, Lt. Governor for the Northwest Territories in 1881 and Lt. Governor of British Columbia in 1893.
His widow visited Exeter in 1920 and came to the Museum. Having seen that his colleague Cecil Denny had donated items formerly belonging to Chief Crowfoot she decided that her husband's collection of Native American items should also come here. Some of the objects are from the Blackfoot, others from First Nations of the Northwest Coast.
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To
find out more about Edgar Dewdney visit the Legislative Assembly of Alberta's site where you can read a short biography.
