b. 1828
d. 1905
Peter O'Reilly was born in Ireland. Entering the Irish civil service, he was appointed
a lieutenant in the revenue police. O'Reilly came to
British Columbia in 1858 and in April 1859 was appointed justice of the peace and revenue collector
at
Hope in 1859; later that year he became high sheriff of the colony. In 1860, he became
a county court judge, and in 1864 he was appointed chief gold commissioner. In 1866,
he moved to the district of Columbia and Kootenay as gold commissioner and in 1868
succeeded Chartres Brew as police magistrate. O'Reilly sat in the British Columbia
Legislative Council from 1863 until the colony joined Confederation in 1871. He served
as Indian Reserve Commissioner from 1880 to 1889.
See Margaret A. Ormsby, Some Irish Figures in Colonial Days, British Columbia Historical Quarterly 14 (1950) pp. 61-82 and J. B. Kerr, Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians (Kerr and Begg: Vancouver, 1890). BCCOR 209.1.