The colonial despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871
Courtenay, Captain George William Conway
George William Conway Courtenay was born in 1795 and entered the Royal Navy at the age of ten. By 1828 he had reached the rank of captain.1
He began service as British consul in Haiti in 1832 and later negotiated a treaty for the suppression of the slave trade.2 After returning to naval service, he assumed command of the frigate HMS Constance in 1847 and made a survey of Vancouver Island coal deposits the following year.3
Recriminations on both sides concerning military support were incurred when Courtenay
failed to meet James Douglas, the chief factor, because of his travel schedule. Nevertheless, Courtenay praised
the resources of the island.4
2. O'Byrne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary, 234; S. T. Bindoff, E. F. Malcolm-Smith, Charles K. Webster, British Diplomatic Representatives, 1789-1852 (London: Offices of the Society, 1934), 63-64.
3. Peter Davis, George William Conway Courtenay R.N., The Victorian Royal Navy (website). http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=769; Barry M. Gough, The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1810-1914: A Study of British
Maritime Ascendancy (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1971), 101-02. http://n2t.net/ark:/13960/t6j18zr07
4. Gough, The Royal Navy, 88; H. Bowsfield, ed., Fort Victoria Letters, 1846-1851, (Winnipeg: HBC Record Society, 1979), 27-28.