I've seen it implied somewhere (forgot where, sry) that the fact that it strange and perhaps indicative of illness that Fitzjames explained how the victory point note was found, retrieved, and moved.
And I'll be honest, I find that odd too! He had so little space to write, and he "wasted" it on this kind of useless information? Instead of, for example, naming their all dead. I know they hoped to deliever that information in person, but come on man.
Here's my question, since you know Fitzjames better than anyone on this planet, could he have just written this explanation because he just... was like that? Like, this wasn't lead poison or whatever messing with his mind, but just his personality (or ADHD, though I very much dislike slapping diagnoses onto every random historical figure).
Another thing I wanted to ask, what do you think about the fact that he, "one of the best walkers in the service", died so close to the ships? I'm starting to think that it might not have been one long march south, but that they went back, and that Fitzjames died not quite reaching the ships.
I'm a Crozier girlie (genterneutral), but I'm very excited to read your biography of him when it comes out!
Hi! First of all, thank you, I really can't wait until my Fitzjames biography is finished/published and to hear what everybody thinks!
Concerning the Victory Point Note and the scant information it contains: I think it's plausible that there were more records and of course there were the ships' logs that would have contained more detailed information on what happened. But the only written evidence that survived was that one note left at Point Victory. Fitzjames didn't need to go into detail about who died or what else happened to the expedition because that information was already recorded elsewhere.
(I do suspect that he had ADHD, but that's just my unprofessional impression.)
Regarding the location where Fitzjames' remains were found, the archaeological evidence unfortunately can't tell us much about the timeline of the expedition's proceedings. That Fitzjames died in a camp near the ship doesn't mean that he couldn't reach the ship or that he hadn't been on the ship and that they had to abandon the ship for some reason.
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