Colonial Despatches

Richard Golledge arrived in Victoria on the barque Tory in 1851 as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. He became Douglas's private secretary almost immediately,1 remaining in the position until 1858, when he returned to private life.

In 1864, he was appointed acting gold commissioner for Sooke by Governor Arthur E. Kennedy, who found it necessary to suspend him for intoxication on the job and frequenting with prostitutes.2 By 1884, Golledge had become a vagrant and was accused of stealing a canoe. He died of heart disease in September 1887.3

• 1. Douglas to Pelham-Clinton, 13 March 1854, 4928, CO 305/5, 38.
• 2. James E. Hendrikson, ed., Journal of the Colonial Legislatures of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, 1851-1871, (Victoria: Provincial Archives of British Columbia, 1980), 155.
• 3. Not a Vagrant, The Daily Colonist, 9 August 1884, 3; Death of Richard Golledge, The Daily Colonist, 7 September 1887, 4.