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Helen Margaret Seymour

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"You think your teacher is tough? Let me tell you, she's a pussycat compared with Miss Helen Seymour, Tutor Supreme!"
―Indiana Jones[src]

Helen Margaret Seymour was an alumna of Oxford University, member of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Victorian Order.[5] Many Oxford scholars were tutored by her, including Henry Jones, Sr. From 1908 to 1910 she traveled around the world with the Jones family as the tutor of Henry's son, Indiana on his father's lecture tour.

Although their relationship was initially frosty, Miss Seymour and Indiana Jones eventually came to hold each other in high regard, with Jones even considering her to be the one who knew him best after his mother passed away and thought of her as family. She eventually took ill from an influenza outbreak during World War I and succumbed to the virus in the days before the conflict ended.

Biography[]

Years at Oxford[]

Miss Helen Margaret Seymour[6] was born the daughter of a minister[7] in around 1848.[2] She had at least one cousin: Roger Seymour.[8]

She was beginning her studies at Oxford University when she met and became friends with Maude Parsons, who was visiting relatives that lived near the Seymours.[9] She eventually became an Oxford tutor herself and, as an educator of young gentleman, her students included Henry Jones, Sr.[1] and later T. E. Lawrence.[10] Before meeting Henry Jones Jr. she never dealt with children.[11]

Lecture tour[]

In 1908, the Jones family visited Miss Seymour at her home in Oxford to hire her to serve as Indy's tutor while they traveled the world on a Professor Jones' lecture tour. While at first she thought the young Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. was far too young and a nuisance[7]–she had been a teacher of boys twice Indiana's age–the lure of world travel changed her mind.[1]

Scaling Pyramid

Indiana Jones and Miss Seymour scaling a pyramid.

She accompanied the family to Egypt, where she and Indy met T. E. Lawrence, who invited the pair to a dig by Howard Carter.[1]

When the Joneses visited Paris, Miss Seymour took Indy to the Louvre where they met the young Norman Rockwell, and gave her student an assignment on Leonardo da Vinci. She took both boys to a puppet theater, but they convinced her to let them stay while she went home. When Jones didn't return to the hotel that afternoon, she called the Hotel Inspector, who also summoned the Police Inspector. When she discovered Indy the next day, she punished him by forcing him to read Les Misérables. When he escaped that night to go to a party thrown by Pablo Picasso, she discovered his absence, and a clue to his whereabouts. She went to Le Lapin Agile, where the Barman pointed her to the party. She entered the masquerade just as Henri Rousseau was telling a ghost story. Picasso took her aside, and drew two sketches of her, one in a realist style, and one in a cubist style.[7] Later that evening, Jones showed her the Degas painting, which Kahnweiler was interested in purchasing.[12]

She also journeyed to British East Africa with the Jones family and went to the Kirinyaga safari camp, where she met President Theodore Roosevelt, whom she admired. She had an awkward moment in the camp shower when the senior Jones arrived to splash her with a bucket of water, thinking that the woman in the shower was Mrs. Jones. She tutored young Jones in African zoology, but when she dozed off, Jones slipped out to meet with his new friend, Meto, and track down the Fringe-eared Oryx.[13]

Miss Seymour accompanied the Joneses as the tutor of the young Henry throughout the two-year lecture tour, and visited the countries of continental Europe and the Mediterranean, Egypt, north and eastern Africa, Tsarist Russia,[14] British India[5] and Imperial China among other parts of the world.[15]

After the lecture tour[]

Around 1912, Miss Seymour came into wealth following the passing of her cousin and his son. She was bequeathed the Shalimar Diamond and with her newfound prosperity she sought to repay the Joneses for the opportunity that the world lecture tour had given her. She invited the Jones family to her home but commitments meant that only Indiana could attend. In April, they planned to journey to the United States on the Titanic. However, the ship met with disaster en route and sank, leaving Miss Seymour and Jones as one of the few to survive the experience along with Otto Dietrich.[8][7]

After the death of Anna Jones, Indiana and Miss Seymour traveled to Maine so his former tutor, on her first visit to the USA, could visit a friend.[9] Miss Seymour was present at the Jones residence in Utah—where the Joneses had moved to following Anna's death—when Indiana returned with, and subsequently lost, the Cross of Coronado. A week later, Miss Seymour and Indiana journeyed to the Yukon on the trail of Archibald Malloy's treasure.[6]

Later years[]

In May 1916, shortly after joining the Belgian army, Indy went to Oxford to see Miss Seymour, and introduced her to Vicky Prentiss who accompanied him. Miss Seymour invited them both to attend a dinner with her on the first night there, where Winston Churchill was also to be a guest. Prentiss caused a great deal of embarrassment to Miss Seymour when she flung some dessert on Churchill while in a heated debate with him over the issue of women's suffrage.[16]

Indy received his call papers as soon as he returned to London. When he and Remy left for the war, Miss Seymour came down and met him at the train station to wish him luck and say goodbye.[16]

In October 1918, Miss Seymour fell ill and wrote a letter to Indy, hoping that he would put his talents and mind to good use and finish his education; she also asked him to reconcile with his father. She had hoped to live until the armistice, but died of influenza[17] on November 4,[3] days before peace was declared. After returning from the front, Indy arrived at Oxford only a week too late to see his tutor one last time, but received Miss Seymour's final letter from her maid.[4][7]

Legacy[]

In 1941, while trying to convince Isabella and Giovanni of how useful they were during his race against the Nazi general Helmut von Mephisto to find Mount Sinai, an older Indiana Jones asked them if they liked to ride camels, something that Isabella admitted to not like as they smelled like her tutor, a sentiment Indy related to by explaining to the two Italian kids how Miss Seymour, his own tutor, smelled like a baseball mitt if she forgot to put on her perfume.[18]

Personality and traits[]

Although conservative and emotionally reserved like most women born during the Victorian Era, and was frequently exasperated by Indy's irresponsible immaturity, Helen nevertheless came to love Indy dearly like a son. In his own later years, Indy recalled fond memories of Miss Seymour, as he told numerous stories from his youth.[19]

As the daughter of a minister, Seymour had strong Christian beliefs which put her in contrast to T. E. Lawrence[10] and the Theosophy movement due to their different views. She initially dismissed Annie Besant due to her reputation as "a believer in free love and a socialist and an atheist".[5]

Behind the scenes[]

Helen Margaret Seymour was portrayed by the late English actress Margaret Tyzack in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.[19] The character was named by Young Indy writer Rosemary Anne Sisson, who suggested it when the writers room was asked for ideas by Indiana Jones creator George Lucas,[20] while the middle name Margaret was a contribution made in the French junior novel Indiana Jones Jr et le Fantôme du Klondike[6]

The character was conceived by Lucas while pitching the first Young Indy episodes as part of his wish to have a tutor-supreme figure for young Indiana Jones' journey.[20]

When additional bridging scenes were shot for My First Adventure in Tunisia in 1997, actress Valerie Varner played Miss Seymour in a non-speaking role.[21]

Indiana Jones Jr et le Fantôme du Klondike, which takes place immediately after the prologue of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, also reveals that Miss Seymour was reading a book in the yard behind Jones residence through the entire incident with the sheriff.[6]

Henry Walton Jones, Senior seems to reference Helen Seymour in Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars, Jeb Stuart's original script of what became Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. After hearing his son Indiana's story of his encounter with aliens, Henry remarks "The last time I heard a story like this, was when you were trying to get out of your Greek lessons...We were on the Carpathian off the Bay of Bengal and you told you[sic] tutor, you had just seen a sea serpent".[22]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal" → My First Adventure
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal teleplay
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide Life & Times, Pg. 14-15
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones and the Treasure of the Peacock's Eye" → Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Benares, January 1910" → Journey of Radiance
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Indiana Jones Jr et le Fantôme du Klondike
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide, "Homeschooled", Pg.19
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Young Indiana Jones and the Titanic Adventure
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Young Indiana Jones and the Pirates' Loot
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Egypt, May 1908 comic
  11. ↑ Lucasfilm Back to School With Young Indiana Jones & Helen Seymour on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  12. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Paris, September 1908" → Passion for Life
  13. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "British East Africa, September 1909" → Passion for Life
  14. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father" → Travels with Father
  15. ↑ The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "Peking, March 1910" → Journey of Radiance
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles – "London, May 1916" → Love's Sweet Song
  17. ↑ Indycron continuity database questions
  18. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Lucasfilm Screenwriter Jonathan Hales on Helping Create Young Indiana Jones on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  21. ↑ My First Adventure
  22. ↑ Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars

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