Yukon who is who

Harry Willes Darell de Windt (1856 – 1933)

Harry de Windt was born in Paris to Captain Joseph Clayton Jennyns de Windt of Blinston Hall, Highworth.¹⁾ He grew up in France in high society, living in a villa inherited by his mother from the Vicomte de Rastignac. The Franco-Prussian war broke out and, as both of parents were dead, 14-year-old Harry was sent to school in England. His sister had married Sir Charles Vyner de Windt Brooke, the last Raja of Sarawak, and at age sixteen Harry joined him as an aide-to-camp. When he returned to England, he had no chance of a military commission without a degree, and he was not a good scholar, so he travelled as a correspondent for some newspapers. His first trip was in 1887 from Peking to France, and then he went from Russia to India, travelled in Siberia, and made a journey across Europe. His most famous journey was an overland trip from New York to Paris.²⁾ De Windt left New York on 26 May 1896 with his servant and friend George Harding to travel to Juneau, over the Chilkoot Pass, and down the Yukon River to the Bering Sea.³⁾ This was his first attempt to cross between the continents on foot and he ignored local warnings about the nature of the ice. He was rescued by a passing whaling ship that he later disparaged for smelling of boiling blubber. He tried again and was successful in 1901/02, this time starting in Paris with New York as his destination. De Windt’s travel books captured the excitement of travelling in little-known regions. He died in a nursing home in Bournemouth, England.⁴⁾