SIR JAMES DOUGLAS
1803 - 1877

Governor of British Columbia

Sir James Douglas was born June 30, 1803 in Demerara, British Guiana, the son of a Scottish Merchant and a "Creole Woman" whose identity remains unknown. Sir James was sent to Lanark, Scotland to receive his education following which his restless spirit saw him set sail for Canada on May 7, 1819 as a new employee of the North West Company.

Sir James served with the North West Company in several locations including Fort Vancouver on the Oregon coast. In 1842 he established a Trading Depot at Victoria, which would serve the Hudson's Bay Company and ensure British control of Vancouver Island and the Fraser River Estuary. In 1851 he was named Governor of the colony of Vancouver Island, in 1858 he instigated the establishment of British Columbia and ensure the dominance of British Justice and control on the B.C. mainland in the tide of an influx of American Miners during the Caribou Gold Rush.

Sir James Douglas, dedicated to the well being of British Columbia leaves his own epitaph; "I ask for no prouder monument, and for no other memorial, when I die and go, than the testimony here offered, that I have done my duty".