and his investigation as First Assistant Postmaster General led to many departmental resignations and prison time for a few people. The incumbent Postmaster General, Henry Clay Payne, died on October 4, 1904. Wynne was appointed Acting Postmaster General the next day, and named Postmaster General on October 10. He served until March 5, 1905. Wynne was appointed Consul General at the Embassy of the United States in London on January 11, 1905, while still serving as Postmaster General. Incoming President William Howard Taft reaffirmed his posting, and he went to London on April 1, 1905. He resigned in May 1909. He remained in London for the next 19 months, representing various American businesses. In January 1910, Wynne was caught in the Stoats Nest railway disaster, in which eight people died. Business career Returning to private life, Wynne was appointed president of the First National Fire Insurance Company when it formed in February 1912 through the merger of the Continental and Munsey insurance companies. In October 1912, First National Fire purchased a half-interest in the Southern Building at 15th and H Streets NW. Trust deeds of $800,000, $450,000, and $325,000 attached to the building. First National Fire was sued by its stockholders for incurring this debt. In January 1912, the company was the focus of a congressional investigation into fraud committed by insurance companies. Wynne was ousted as president in April 1914 over the Southern Building acquisition. Suspicious that proxy votes had been withheld from the count, Wynne successfully sued to have personal mail which had been delivered to the company (and which the company had seized) returned to him. As he expected, many proxy votes had not been counted. When they were counted, Wynne was reelected president of the company on June 17, 1914. The Commercial Fire Insurance Company of Baltimore, Maryland, the co-owner of the Southern Building, tried to force a merger with First National in August 1914. Wynne resisted the merger, and demanded that the Southern Building be partitioned so that First National could extricate itself from its business arrangements with Commercial Fire. The partition effort was unsuccessful, and in December 1914 Commercial Fire sold its interest in the structure. Commercial Fire went bankrupt days later. On February 10, 1915, businessman William Tryson and others formed the Allan E. Walker Company to buy the Southern Building. Nine days later, First National Fire sold the building to the Walker