Blind Freddy: The Pottinger Attainment
Who was blind Freddy?
The likeliest candidate is Sir Frederick Pottinger, an unlucky or incompetent policeman hunting bushrangers at the time of the New South Wales goldrushes. It depends on your point of view.
He was the scion of an ancient and recently elevated family. His father had been knighted for services to British interests in the colonies, not least in extracting Hong Kong from the Emperor of China, and becoming its first governor. Freddy grew up in the glitter of that career, expecting to make something of a name for himself, and so he did. He disgraced himself, and was sent out to that part of the world which had been especially designed for the disgraceful. The colonials were not impressed. The Pottingers may have imagined theirs was a great family. That is how they viewed themselves; the locals saw them differently
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