Reverend Richard Dowson was the first Anglican missionary assigned to the colony of
British Columbia in
1858 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
1 Born in Liverpool, England on
20 October 1827, he was educated at Cambridge, becoming a deacon in
1854 and priest in
1855.
2 Sent as
the Society's missionary to the Indians in Vancouver Island,
he arrived in
Victoria with his wife on
2 February 1859.
3 Leaving his wife behind, Dowson embarked on a tour of the Pacific coast two weeks
later, travelling as far north as
Fort Simpson.
4 In
June 1859, he reported that he was living in a
little dilapidated school-house
that was
some distance from any considerable number of Indians.
5 Dowson and his wife struggled in the colony and returned to England in
early 1860 due to her
impaired health.
6 He served as Rector of St. John's in Belize City,
British Honduras, from
1861 to
1870 and was 47 years old when he died in
1875.
7