General Simcoe lived only ten years after leaving Canada. Making his home at Wolford Lodge in the county of Devon, England, he continued to take an active part in the military life of his country. In 1806 he accepted an appointment as Commander-in-chief of the  British Army in India, but he was not destined to fulfill the post. Several ailments combined to reduce his physique and he died a comparatively young man at 54 years of age.

He was buried beneath the historic chapel at Wolford Lodge, which he had erected for this purpose. Here likewise lie the remains of Mrs. Simcoe and their children. As the male line of the Simcoe family became extinct, the Wolford estate eventually passed into the ownership of others. Fortunately the chapel was acquired and restored by Mr. Geoffrey Harmsworth of the well-known British newspaper firm. For some years he endeavoured to have a Canadian government or historical body take responsibility for the chapel. Finally the Ontario Government and the City of Toronto jointly opened a fund for the purpose of acquiring ownership of the historic building where the Simcoe family rests. In this way its upkeep in perpetuity is ensured and as the years pass, it will become a shrine for Canadian visitors to England, anxious to pay their tribute to the man who laid the foundations of Upper Canada.

A commemorative plaque was unveiled at the Wolford Chapel in 1963 by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board, in eulogy of Governor Simcoe's life. Twenty miles distant in the cathedral at Exeter there is a very fine mural tablet by Flaxman, noted English sculptor, on which the inscription reads: 'Sacred to the memory of John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-General in the Army and Colonel of the 22nd Regiment of Foot, who died on the 26th day of October, 1806, aged 54 years. In whose life and character the virtues of the hero, the patriot and the Christian were so eminently conspicuous that it may justly be said that he had served his King and his country with a zeal to exceeded only by his piety towards his God."

At Queen's Park, Toronto, in front of the Parliament Buildings stands a fine statue of General Simcoe, commemorating Upper Canada�s first Governor, and his monumental contribution to its founding. Apart from the town of Simcoe, the Governors name is also perpetuated m the county of Simcoe and Lake Simcoe and in numerous streets in Ontario towns and cities. As the only individual town to bear his illustrious name, Simcoe, the county town of Norfolk, and one of the most loyal and progressive towns in Ontario, has always taken great pride in the origin of its name. In the Eva Brook Donly Museum in Simcoe, among the excellent paintings by Edgar Cantelon, Norfolk's famous historical artist, is one of the oak tree under which the Governor Simcoe party bivouacked in Lynnwood Park during their return trip from Turkey Point in 1795. Mr. Cantelon also left a fine oil painting of the Governor himself, which is greatly prized by the Norfolk Historical Society, which now owns the Cantelon pictures.

It is unfortunate that a few writers have criticized Governor Simcoe as an autocratic despot, whose ideas of colonial government were permeated by military and aristocratic conceptions quite unsuited to pioneer conditions in Upper Canada. Some have portrayed him as a typical English lord, with characteristic disdain for the colonists, or as a British baron who lived in lonely splendour at Niagara amid the military pomp and pageantry which he loved, coldly aloof from the advancement of Upper Canada and the welfare of its early citizens.

0n the contrary, John Graves Simcoe was a very human person, deeply concerned about the people whom he 'governed' and highly conscientious about his responsibilities in laying firmly the foundations of this province. His keen personal interest in the United Empire Loyalist settlers whom he had brought to this province was demonstrated time and again. Throughout his career the Governor revealed a firm attachment to democratic principles. This was shown clearly in the form of parliamentary government� which he conceived and established in 1791 in Upper Canada.

Throughout the whole of his five-year stay in Canada Governor Simcoe evinced the keenest interest in the progress of this country and the warmest sympathy for the welfare and progress of its pioneer settlers. Without his leadership the development of present-day Ontario would have been seriously retarded.

The picture of him as a military and aristocratic despot, therefore is far from the truth. Despite his military upbringing, he was a man of peace and he maintained the peace during his stay in Canada. Far from being of aristocratic lineage, he was the son of a sea captain. He came up through the army ranks and earned his military distinctions. His service to Britain would have entitled him to a peerage, but he consistently refused titular honours.

The stature of a man is best measured by his popularity with his own people. By this yardstick, General Simcoe ranked high. On numerous occasions his wide circle of friends and admirers in his homeland of Devonshire paid him honour. His home at Wolford Lodge near Honiton was frequently the centre of community gatherings. When he passed away at the early age of fifty-four, there was profound and widespread sorrow throughout the county of Devon. He was laid to rest beneath the Wolford Chapel in a funeral ceremony that attracted the largest concourse of its kind in Devin history.

Looking back to Governor Simcoe's visit to Norfolk County in 1795, perhaps the best description of that historic occasion and its consequences is provided in the volume �Early Educational History of Norfolk County,� from the pen of Norfolk�s distinguished historian, the late Dr John A Bannister of Port Dover. It reads as follows:

"But the problems of education were not the only ones that occupied the attention of the indefatigable Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. Relations with the Republic to the south had at various times been severely strained, and the possibility of hostilities was ever in his mind. He was anxious to secure a site for a capital that, unlike Newark or York, would not be exposed to the danger of attack.