Colonial Despatches

Joseph Despard Pemberton was born on 23 July 1821 near Dublin, Ireland.1 He studied civil engineering at Dublin's Trinity College, and was professor of engineering at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester before leaving for Victoria in 1851 to work for the Hudson's Bay Company as a surveyor. By 1860 he had risen to the position of Surveyor-General for Vancouver Island, a position he held until 1864.2 While serving as Surveyor-General, Pemberton wrote a book titled Facts and Figures Relating to Vancouver Island and British Columbia […]. Pemberton was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island and sat on the Executive Council from 1863 to 1866. He retired from politics in 1868 and died of heart failure on 11 November 1893, while riding home following an afternoon spent participating in a 'paper chase.'3

• 1. Richard Mackie, Pemberton, Joseph Despard, Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
• 2. J. B. Kerr, Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians, (Vancouver: Kerr & Begg, 1890), 268. http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0222426
• 3. Suddenly Stricken, Daily Colonist (Victoria), 12 November 1893, 5. http://n2t.net/ark:13960/t7np42k7v