Colonial Despatches

British investors founded the Bank of British North America in 1836; it was incorporated by royal charter in 1840. The Victoria branch was located on Yates Street; the manager was Fred. Whatley Wood, the accountant was Alexander Watson, the teller was E. M. Jackson, and the messenger was A. Wilson.1 The bank became the official bank for the city of Victoria and the colonial government of Vancouver Island. On 12 April 1918, the Bank of British North America was absorbed by the Bank of Montreal.2

• 1. Bank of British North America, Daily Colonist, 23 May 1859, p.3. ; Edward Mallandaine, First Victoria Directory, (Victoria: Edw. Mallandaine and Co., 1860).
• 2. W. Turrentine Jackson, Banking, Mail, and Express Service in British North America: The Role of Wells, Fargo and Company on Vancouver Island and British Columbia, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol.76, no.4, (1985).