George Rudolph Seydell, merchant, was the son of Adolf Friedrich Seydell and Ulrike Wilhelmine Emilie Gollnisch. He requested naturalization as a citizen of the Cape Colony in 1892. In later years he was a general dealer at Clanwilliam. On 11 March 1884, at Clanwilliam, he married Johanna Catharina Moolman, with whom he had a son.
Seydell made regular meteorological observations for the Meteorological Commission of the Cape of Good Hope at his second order meteorological station in Clanwilliam from the beginning of 1897 to the end of 1902. A summary of his observations was published annually in the Commission's Report for these years.
