b. 1801-10-02
d. 1872-02-26
Alfred Penderell Waddington was the first Superintendent of Education for the colony
of
Vancouver Island and
Victoria's elected member of the House of Assembly from
1860 to 1861. He is best remembered for spearheading the problematic road construction project
that led to the Chilcotin War of
1864.
Waddington, an English entrepreneur, was born in
London,
2 October 1801. He was educated at the Ecole Speciale du Commerce in Paris and the University of
Gottingen in Germany. After a series of business disappointments in France, Waddington
moved to California in
1850, becoming a partner in a wholesale grocery company. When the
Fraser River gold rush began in
1858, Waddington moved to
Victoria and engaged in resource speculation.
After the discovery of gold in
Cariboo country, Waddington hatched a plan to move gold up the valley of the
Homathko River to
Bute Inlet and from there by boat to
Vancouver Island. Construction of his road began in
1863. In
April 1864, a party of Tsilhqot'in Indians massacred the construction party. There were nineteen casualties and the road was abandoned. This act of aggression
led
Frederick Seymour, then governor of
British Columbia, to dispatch volunteers to track down the perpetrators. The so-called Chilcotin War, or
Bute Inlet Massacre, resulted in the executions of five of the murderers. Waddington never recouped
the money lost on the construction project. He died of smallpox on
26 February 1872 while in Ottawa still promoting the
Bute Inlet route. He was 71.
Waddington was part of the group who drafted the charter of the city of
Victoria in
1862, and although nominated for mayor, he declined to run. His book,
The Fraser mines vindicated, was the first book printed on
Vancouver Island outside of government publications. Waddington held the position of Superintendent of Education until
1867 after
Vancouver Island's annexation by
British Columbia brought him into conflict with the General Board of Education.
- 1. W. Kaye Lamb, Waddington, Alfred Penderell, Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
- 2. Patrick A. Dunae, Alfred Waddington, The Homeroom: British Columbia's history of education website.
- 3. Lamb, Waddington.
- 4. Seymour to Cardwell, 9 September 1864, 10601, CO 60/19, 149.
- 5. Ibid.
- 6. Lamb, Waddington.
- 7. Dunae, Alfred Waddington.
- 8. Alan Twigg, Waddington, Alfred (1801-1872), ABC Bookworld.
- 9. Lamb, Waddington.
- 10. Dunae, Alfred Waddington.
- 11. Ibid.