Colonial Despatches

William Trutch was the father of British Columbia's first Lieutenant Governor, Sir Joseph William Trutch.1 He trained as a solicitor and was posted as a Clerk of the Peace in St John's, Jamaica, and he also served as a lieutenant in the Port Royal militia.2 The Trutch family returned from Jamaica to Somerset, England in 1834.3

William encouraged Joseph to seek a position with the Colonial Office when his son displayed an interest in moving to the colonies, and secured a recommendation from Sir E. Bulwar-Lytton, which he sent to Governor James Douglas on 16 September 1858.4 This recommendation would launch Joseph Trutch's professional and political career in British Columbia.

• 1. Hollis R. Lynch, Sir Joseph William Trutch, A British-American Pioneer on the Pacific Coast , Pacific Historical Review 30, 3, 1961, 243.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Robin Fisher, Trutch, Sir Joseph William, Dictionary of Canadian Biography 13, 1994.
• 4. Ibid.