Biweekly Newsletter - William H. Selee

While some members of Easton families stay close to home, some travel widely. Such was true of William H. Selee who left Easton at a very young age. He was a “bold and reckless adventurer” who became a seafarer and later joined the British army. Known for his bravery, he once demonstrated this trait by jumping overboard to save another man at the risk of his own life.
Selee traveled as far as Japan and China, but when interviewed by the Boston Daily Globe in 1896 didn’t want to speak about it, fearing the notoriety. When in India with the British army in 1856 Selee was involved in a desperate situation, a situation (a “forlorn hope”) unlikely to have a positive outcome. Selee immediately volunteered for this expedition. While crossing difficult
terrain the commanding officer was shot and Selee quickly stepped in, threw the officer on his own back, and carried him to safety. The fraught encounter ended in hand-to-hand combat, where nearly all the assailants were killed. Selee himself sustained injuries to his face from a saber and bore a scar on his face for the rest of his life. Only twenty British soldiers escaped this
melee. This was just prior to the raj or British direct rule of India that began in 1858.
Back in England Selee and the other survivors received the Victoria Cross medal for bravery. Queen Victoria herself pinned the medal on Selee’s uniform. In his later years Selee received a pension from the British government.
Selee was married to “a daughter of Clerk Berry” who lived on Depot Street- then known as ‘Yankee Street’. There was one daughter from this marriage who in 1896 was living in California. Quite an adventurous- and long- life for Mr. William Selee. In the end his travels brought him home to Easton.

Anne Wooster Drury

​Source:
Link to Boston Daily Globe, July 8, 1896 article