b. 1838-04-30
d. 1893-02-10
Lieutenant Henry Spencer Palmer was an engineer who undertook multiple surveys in
the province under the auspices of the Royal Engineers as part of the British Columbia
Expedition from its beginning in
1858 until it was disbanded in
1863.
1 James Douglas described Palmer favourably to the Colonial Secretary,
the Duke of Newcastle:
Lieutenant Palmer has been the Subaltern of the Detachment, but upon one or two occasions
has conducted exploring trips though the Colony with great credit to himself, and
has done good service in fixing points and distances in the Upper Country.
2Born 30 April 1838 in Bangalore, India, Palmer attended private schools at Bath and was educated by
private tutors in Woolwich and Plumstead before being admitted to the Royal Military
Academy at Woolwich and, later, the School of Military Engineering at Chatham.3
Palmer received his colonial appointment
10 September 1858 and sailed from Gravesend, England, aboard the Thames City, landing in
Esquimalt 12 April 1859. Palmer worked under the command of
Captain Robert Mann Parsons of the Royal Engineers.
4 His work in the province included reconnaissance of the
Harrison and
Lillooet route to the Upper
Fraser River in
1859, the creation of a sketch map of the province in
1860 that was heavily distributed to the colonial establishment, a topographical report
on the
Bentinck Arm and
Caribou Districts in
1863, and a survey from
Victoria to
Fort Alexander the same year.
5 Arthur Johnstone Blackwood, senior clerk of the Colonial Office, called Palmer
an exceedingly clever young Officer, who, being on the spot & faute de mieux, might
make a good successor to Colonel Moody, in the Office of Chief Commr. of Lands.
6The detachment of engineers was disbanded in 1863. Palmer returned to England and joined the Ordnance Survey, analyzing areas throughout
England.7 In 1869, Palmer, with the financial backing of the Royal Society, undertook a survey of the
Sinai Peninsula. His work as a surveyor took him around the world to New Zealand,
Barbados, Hong Kong, and eventually Japan. He retired from the Royal Engineers in
1887 and established a civil practice in Yokohama, where he designed the harbour and waterworks
for the city. The emperor awarded Palmer with the third class of the order of the
Rising Sun for his service to the country.8 He died suddenly on 10 February 1893 while working on a project in Tokyo.9
In
1862, while surveying the
Cariboo gold fields, Palmer came into conflict with the
Bella Coola Indians at
North Bentinck Arm. According to an anecdote from his wife that was reported in the Daily Colonist,
Palmer was cooking salmon over a fire when a party of armed Indians arrived. They
took issue with him for cutting the backbone of the salmon and were ready to put him
to death for the offence. Palmer managed to cleverly talk his way out of it and save
his men’s lives.
10
- 1. Elizabeth Baigent, Palmer, Henry Spencer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 2. Newcastle to Douglas, 3 August 1863, CO 398/2, p. 169.
- 3. Elizabeth Baigent, Palmer, Henry Spencer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 4. Hawes to Merrivale, 30 July 1859, 7599, CO 60/6, p. 302.; Jiro Higuchi Lieutenant Henry Spencer Palmer, Royal Engineers Website.
- 5. Douglas to Lytton, 18 August 1859, 10048, CO 60/5, p. 44; Hawes to Under-Secretary for the Colonies, 21 February 1860, 1791, CO 60/9, p. 265; Douglas to Newcastle, 21 May 1863, 6928, CO 60/15, p. 316; Newcastle to Douglas, 3 August 1863, 6928, NAC, RG7, G8C/10, p. 555.
- 6. Douglas to Newcastle, 21 May 1863, 6928, CO 60/15, p. 316.
- 7. Elizabeth Baigent, Palmer, Henry Spencer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 8. Frances M. Woodward, Palmer, Henry Spencer, Dictionary of Canadian Biography; Ibid.
- 9. Elizabeth Baigent, Palmer, Henry Spencer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- 10. Mrs. Mary Spencer Palmer, The Daily Colonist (1934-01-11); William Barr, Palmer with Indians in His Pocket, Royal Engineers Website.