b. 1815-12-31
d. 1870-05-31
Chartres Brew was born in County Clare, Ireland, on
31 December 1815. He enlisted in the Royal Irish Constabulary in
1840, and became assistant commissary-general on
1 February 1856, during the Crimean War.
1 In
1857 he was appointed inspector of the constabulary in the city of Cork and in
1858 chief inspector of police for
British Columbia.
2Brew left England for
Victoria on
4 September 1858 and, after being shipwrecked off the Atlantic coast, arrived in
Victoria on
8 November. In
January 1859 Douglas appointed Brew chief gold commissioner. He but soon became dissatisfied with the
lack of an organized police force and on
23 April 1859 threatened to resign from government service.
Douglas pursuaded him to stay on and in
May 1859 appointed him chief inspector of police. He subsequently held appointments as chief
magistrate in
New Westminster, acting treasurer of
British Columbia, and acting chief commissioner of lands and works.
3From 1864 to 1868, he also served as an appointed member of the colony's Legislative Council.
8 He died at Richfield,
BC, on
31 May 1870, after suffering from acute attacks of rheumatism.
- 1. Margaret A. Ormsby, Brew, Chartres, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 2. Ibid.
- 3. Ibid.
- 4. Ibid.