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Mary Ellen Smith, MLA

Mary Ellen Smith was elected as the first female Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1918, a year after BC women won the right to vote and stand for provincial office.  Winning her seat first in a Vancouver by-election, Smith was re-elected in both the 1920 and 1924 general elections and held provincial office until 1928.  Mary Ellen Smith was not only a political trail-blazer but a vocal advocate for women, children and families.  As an MLA, Smith fought for legislation to establish a minimum wage for women, to create juvenile courts, to allow women to sit as judges, to protect women in the workplace, and to establish a pension for mothers.  Smith also achieved two significant 'firsts' in both Canada and the British Empire; in 1921 she became the first woman to serve as a member of cabinet and in 1928 the first female to preside over parliamentary debate as Acting Speaker.

Thomas Uphill, MLA

Thomas Uphill was born in England in 1874.  He attended the church school in Radstock before finding work as a farm labourer.  At age 14, He began working in a coal mine.  Uphill left England to serve in the Second Anglo-Boer War and upon his return 1901 sought work in the coal mines of Wales.  In 1906, Uphill moved to Fernie, British Columbia.  Within a few years of his arrival, Uphill became secretary of the local Miners' Union and was elected to serve as a member of Fernie's city council and later, as its mayor.  In 1920, Uphill was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia.  He went on to be re-elected 11 times and served for 40 years, making him the longest serving MLA in BC's history.  As an MLA, Uphill fought to represent the concerns of the "working men of Fernie" and spoke often about working conditions in mines, unemployment relief, and old age pensions.  Uphill was well known for his sense of humour; in one of his more famous episodes, he brought a bottle of beer onto the floor of the House and called for the wartime restrictions on the sale of beer to be overturned.  He retired from office in 1960 and passed away two years later.

Queen Victoria

Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, Victoria reigned over the British Empire during its most prosperous and expansionist era. Her Majesty ascended the Throne in 1837 at 18 years of age, and reigned for 63 years – longer than any other British monarch. Her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was gloriously celebrated in British Columbia. Although the new home of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, the Parliament Buildings, was not fully completed in time for this event, the illumination of the façade with more than 3,000 lights first began in celebration of the Jubilee. An outstanding stained-glass window, now on display in the Reception Hall, was also commissioned to mark this milestone of her reign. Queen Victoria personally chose the name of our province and she always had a keen interest in her colonial subjects. Canada has honoured her many times over in giving civic edifices, places and geographic features her name.

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Francis Mawson Rattenbury

Born and trained in England, Francis Rattenbury won the competition for the new Parliament Buildings in 1892 at 25 years of age. His architectural vision gave Victoria and British Columbia its most famous heritage buildings: the Empress Hotel, the Steamship Terminal of the Canadian Pacific Railway – which now houses the Royal London Wax Museum – the Jubilee Hospital and courthouses in Vancouver, Chilliwack, Nanaimo and Nelson, to name a few. One of his last projects, completed in 1925, was what was said to be the largest saltwater swimming pool in the British Empire: the Crystal Gardens building, which still stands behind the Empress Hotel. By the mid-1920’s, Rattenbury was shunned by Victorian Society due to his confrontational business style and his brazen rejection of his first wife. Rattenbury returned to England in 1930 with his second wife, Alma. He met a violent death in 1935 when he was murdered by his chauffeur, who was having an affair with his young wife.

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Sir James Douglas

Born in 1803 in British Guiana to a Scottish merchant and a Creole black woman, James Douglas was educated in Scotland before entering the service of the North West Company at the age of 16. Following the merger of the North West Company with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, he was posted to what is now British Columbia. As Chief Factor for the region, he chose the site and built Fort Victoria in 1843. He was the second Governor appointed for the Colony of Vancouver Island, where in 1856 he was responsible for founding the first elected assembly west of the Great Lakes. He was also the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia, which was established in 1858 shortly after the discovery of gold along the Fraser River. His nickname “Old Square Toes” reflected his conservatism and his stern and exacting character. He was regularly criticized by his opponent Amor De Cosmos for serving two empires: the Crown and the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company. At his retirement Sir James Douglas was knighted a Commander of the Order of the Bath for his outstanding service to the colonies.

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Amor de Cosmos

Born in Nova Scotia in 1825, his real name was William Smith. While in California during the gold rush, he changed his name to the unconventional Amor De Cosmos, which he said represented his “love of order, beauty, the world, the universe.” After arriving in Victoria in 1858, he was elected six times to the Assemblies of first the colony, later the province, and also the federal parliament and became the second Premier of British Columbia. As a legislator and journalist, he was an outspoken advocate for bringing BC into Confederation with Canada. He denounced the paternalistic administration of Governor Douglas in his newspaper, the British Colonist, and was a fervent advocate of free speech, free assembly, free education and the democratic principle of responsible government. Amor De Cosmos always had an insatiable desire to help the common people. His charisma and eccentricity made him one of the most colourful premiers of BC. He died in Victoria in 1897.

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Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie

On November 19, 1858, Governor James Douglas appointed Matthew Baillie Begbie the first Judge of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia. Begbie’s most important contribution as a judge was to enforce British law in mining camps throughout British Columbia. He was never known as the “Hanging Judge” by his contemporaries. In fact, Begbie was repulsed by the taking of human life.  He was a fair and competent judge, who liked to carry justice swiftly and fairly, and was known as an advocate for the rights of aboriginal people and Chinese immigrants. In 1859 Begbie was appointed to the Legislative Council.  His simultaneous service in both the government and the judiciary drew vehement criticism from newspaper editor Amor De Cosmos. Nonetheless, Begbie drafted most of the early legislation of the colony, and later on of the province, since he was one of the few with legal training.  Begbie was also an amateur cartographer, mathematician, artist and singer. Begbie died in Victoria in 1894.

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Nellie Cashman

Nellie Cashman was born in Ireland in 1845, and immigrated to the United States as a young girl. A serious miner and amateur geologist, Nellie mined in the Cassiar, Cariboo, Klondike and California gold rushes. She lived for twenty years in Tombstone, Arizona, where she was a contemporary of Wyatt Earp. She opened restaurants, hotels and churches in several gold rush towns, and was renowned for helping miners down on their luck with free meals. She earned the name “Angel of the Cassiar” when during the Cassiar Gold Rush, she saved the lives of numerous men sick with scurvy by leading an expedition to bring 1,500 pounds of food and supplies through the snowy mountains. Even at the age of 77, Nellie ran a dog team alone for 750 miles across Alaska. “Pretty as a Victorian cameo and, when necessary, tougher than two-penny nails,” she was loved by all the miners from Mexico to Alaska. In Victoria she is known for raising funds to build St. Joseph’s Hospital, where she died in 1925.

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