[KS] Percival Lowell - 8 of 9 ...

[Frank Hoffmann]

Sorry to be so slow:

The no. 8 on Professor Pai's list is (very likely at least) a British 
citizen of the name William H. Gubbins (NOT to be confused with John 
Harrington Gubbins who served as the British ambassador to Korea in 
1900-1901). Gubbins seems to have resided in Seoul from June 1883 to 
summer of 1884. He was a friend of Möllendorff from his Shanghai days 
and represented the British company Jardine, Matheson & Co.  And 
Jardine, I believe, sold a steam ship to the Korean government 
(initiated by Möllendorff, as usual), and was up to further business 
relations. One of the former German diplomats to Korea, Walter Leifer 
(wasn't he even ambassador in the early 1980s?), reports that Gubbins 
became insane while visiting Möllendorff in Seoul and soon after died 
-- I am not sure where from this info is though. Anyway, you can see 
the archive entries for the correspondence between Gubbins with 
Möllendorff as well as his company offices at the Cambridge University 
Archives:
http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=Search
Just enter "Gubbins" as first and "Korea" as second search term.


Best,
Frank



--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com