J.F. Bosher - Imperial Vancouver Island: Who Was Who, 1850-1950

J.F. Bosher,

Imperial Vancouver Island: Who Was Who, 1850-1950

X-Libris Corporation, 2010, pp. 839, maps, illustrations

ISBN: 978-1-4500-5963-3 (hardback); 978-1-4500-5962-6 (softcover); 978-1-4500-5964-0 (e-book)

Vancouver Island, off the west coast of Canada, was the furthest part of the Empire from Britain by sea, but the closest in spirit. With a climate like England and mountains reminiscent of Ceylon, it appealed both to decayed gentry and proconsuls as a place to settle. Visitors like Kipling, who ran out of laudatory adjectives, were enchanted by Victoria, the main town, a Home Counties fragment overlooking the Pacific. J.F. Bosher has assembled biographical sketches of 769 Island personalities, most of them with immediate roots in Britain and Ireland. He begins with a passionate essay denouncing Canada's historians for discounting the Imperial dimension of their past. It was alive on Vancouver Island. One resident criticised the local newspaper for its inadequate cricket reports, while another complained when a Canadian moved in next door. The biographies include a descendant of Jane Austen and the Irish Protestant Major John Bowen-Colthurst, who was declared insane after killing unarmed civilians during the 1916 Easter Rising. Released from Broadmoor, he fitted in perfectly to Island life. The most famous of Bosher's subjects is Arthur Currie, the real-estate agent who rose to command Canadian troops on the Western Front. There are two key facts about Currie: he embezzled regimental funds and his victory at Vimy Ridge revolutionised trench warfare. Point two meant point one was hushed up. Curiously, Bosher mentions neither. Selection is heavily weighted towards military and naval officers: the three schoolmaster founders of Victoria's elite University School do not feature. Some information is inconsequential: a colonel's army file shows he broke his arm tripping over wire, hardly a character trait. A major's prize possession was a dried flower, clipped off the Kaiser's wreath at Queen Victoria's funeral: his name was James Bond. Bosher has used UK census returns to explore British and Irish backgrounds, but the information is often poorly edited. Sevenoaks, Sherborne and Torquay can be rescued from spelling errors, but "Mayo Island" is a mystery and there is no Essex village of West Nesson. The book is a labour of love and should be assessed as such.

[Times Literary Supplement. The review drew a letter pointing out that Jane Austen never married and had no direct descendants. Facing strict demands of brevity, I omitted the word "collateral" in confidence that TLS readers were fully aware of this. The letter-writer was an Anglican clergyman.]