Colonial Despatches

Alexandrina Victoria, after whom HBC officials named Fort Victoria, and later, the city of Victoria,1 was the queen during the period in which Canada and other British colonies became independent nations. Born at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1819, Victoria became queen of the United Kingdom in 1837, after the death of her uncle, King William IV, and reigned until her death in 1901.2

From early on, Victoria was groomed for the throne, and spent most of her youth isolated from others her own age, as well as from the often morally contaminated royal court. Nearly three years after her accession, in February 1840, Victoria married her cousin, Albert, who was the prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The couple, with their nine children, would become the exemplar of the ideal British family. Despite being the ruling monarch, Victoria would largely concede the running of the household to her husband, and, after Albert’s death, Victoria often noted how dependant on him she had been.3

Queen Victoria reached her diamond jubilee on 20 June 1897, having ruled for 60 years, and, by 1898, her health began to deteriorate. Victoria died on 22 January 1901 as the longest serving British monarch.4

Throughout her reign, Queen Victoria established a monarchy that was far more involved in the daily governance of the nation than her subjects were aware, and she remained a figure of stability during a transitory period for the British Empire. There are very few major cities of the former British Empire that do not bear some tribute in name to Queen Victoria.5

• 1. John T. Walbran, British Columbia Coast Names (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1971), 512.
• 2. H. C. G Matthew and K. D. Reynolds, Victoria, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Ibid.