The Legend of Captain Fawcett
Not long after the reign of Queen Victoria, some time in 1905, Captain Peabody Fawcett, late of His Majesty’s Royal Navy, vanished. This earnest student of the natural world had embarked upon a research expedition journeying along the Ubangi River, a vast life-giving tributary of the mighty Congo Basin. Determined to document the flora of this most magnificent land, somewhere beyond the cataracts, his log recorded his final coordinates.
There, where river and forest converge, it seems both the Captain and his chronicles slipped quietly into legend.
For decades, his fate remained a mystery. Garlanded by cigar smoke and speculation, the name of Fawcett lived on, among geographers, natural philosophers and more romantic members of The Royal Geographical Society — a byword for courage, curiosity, and that peculiar breed of Englishman who disappears from view simply because the map has the dashed audacity to stop…
The Discovery of the Trunk
Nearly a century later, at a grand house clearance in rural Norfolk, a battered travel trunk was purchased on whim, and, incredibly, taken home by a tubby biker known for his rather magnificent moustache. Its rusted locks were forced open, and within, beneath mouldering khaki and water-stained maps, lay an exquisite Coromandel dressing case, a gentleman’s elegant companion to distant horizons.
Beside it, wrapped in oilcloth, were several ribbon-bound journals, their pages browned and brittle with age. The handwriting was impeccable, the firm, upright script of a naval man educated by candlelight and experience. Upon the first page, a single phrase in ink that had not faded:
“Keeping A Stiff Upper Lip Regardless”
Notes from the Journals
The journals revealed not only a record of Fawcett’s extraordinary route through fever-ridden swamps and towering forests, but also his meticulous notes upon the natural flora he encountered, and the aromatic properties that stirred both his scientific curiosity and his poet’s heart.
He writes of Cedrela odorata, the West African Cedar, whose warm, dry wood he described as ‘the scent of steadfastness itself’. He notes the 'peppered verdure’ of Galbanum, the resin drawn from Persian Fennel, and records the local healers’ use of Cymbopogon, wild Lemongrass, as both tonic and charm against misfortune. The sharp zest of Orange peel, the cool press of Rosemary, the spice of Patchouli, all these, the Captain observed, might one day find their place in ‘the gentleman’s arsenal of aromatic fortitude’.
Amid astonishing tales of hardship and myriad wonders seen, appeared precise formulae for the Captain Fawcett’s very own grooming requisites: tonics and salves, oils and balms, elixirs and unguents devised to keep a man’s spirits high and his moustache resolute, no matter the climate or calamity.
An Enduring Mystery
What became of the Captain thereafter remains unknown. His journals end abruptly, the final line ambiguous…
“The deeper I wander, the more the world reveals its irresistible wonder. This afternoon I encountered a vine whose twisting tendrils glimmered as if spun from moonlight, and a blossom so beguiling I wondered whether returning to the constraints of so called civilisation, seems entirely necessary, or, indeed, wise.
My compass has perished, my charts faded beyond use. Yet as provisions dwindle, dash it all, I find my spirits soar; a man with his whiskers waxed is never truly lost. Beaten paths are for beaten men…”
Fate’s next twist is a matter for theory and spirited debate. What is certain is that, from those fragile pages, a legacy was reborn.
The Resurrection of a Gentleman’s Legacy
Each recipe contained within those notebooks has been faithfully recreated in Great Britain using the finest ingredients, crafted with the same precision and sense of wonder that guided the Captain’s own hand. From his celebrated Moustache Wax to his exquisite Eaux de Parfum, every preparation bears the mark of the explorer — curiosity, craftsmanship and courage distilled.
Thus the legend endures: not in monuments or medals, but in small daily rituals. The lathering of a soap, the smoothing of a beard, the spritz of a fine fragrance. Acts of quiet ceremony, gestures shared across generations, continents, and the countries stories that shaped us.
The spirit of adventure lives on.
Nothing Else Comes Close.
