James Douglas (governor)

James Douglas (governor)

Sir James Douglas KCB (August 15, 1803 – August 2, 1877) was a company fur-trader and a British colonial governor on Vancouver Island in northwestern North America, particularly in what is now British Columbia. Douglas worked for the North West Company, and later for the Hudson's Bay Company becoming a high-ranking company officer. From 1851 to 1864, he was Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island. In 1858 he also became the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, in order to assert British authority during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, which had the potential to turn the B.C. Mainland into an American state. He remained governor of both Vancouver Island and British Columbia until his retirement in 1864. He is often credited as "The Father of British Columbia".

Read more about James Douglas (governor):  Early Life and Fur Trader, Years in Fort Vancouver and Fort Victoria, Governor of The Colony of Vancouver Island, The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, Governor of Two Colonies, Retirement and Death, Places Named For Douglas

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    When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.
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