b. 1822
d. 1899
Captain William Driscoll Gosset became a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1840,
was promoted captain in November 1850, and appointed surveyor general of Ceylon [Sri
Lanka] in September 1855. Accepting the position of colonial treasurer of
British Columbia in November 1858, Gosset arrived in
Esquimalt on Christmas Day, along with R. C. Moody.
He was treasurer and postmaster for the colony until 1860, when he relinquished the
job of postmaster and became treasurer of
Vancouver Island. Gosset proved to be a difficult and at times exasperating colleague, especially
to
James Douglas who pronounced him
faithless and unprincipled.
Gosset returned to England on sick leave in 1862 and resigned from the Royal Engineers
in 1863.
See Woodward, The Influence of the Royal Engineers. See also Dorothy Blakey Smith, The Journal of Arthur Thomas Bushby, 1858-1859, BCHQ 21, (1957-58): 177-78, and Colonial Office List 1864, p. 179. Douglas to Newcastle, 18 February 1863, CO 60.BCDES 22.4.