Thomas Elwyn was a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 soldier

Soldier

A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...

, police officer

Police officer

A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...

 and gold commissioner

Gold Commissioner

Gold Commissioner was an important regional administrative post in the Colony of British Columbia.In the 1860s, Governor Douglas had three priorities to protect the two colonies he governed: to protect the boundaries, to uphold law and order and to provide access to the gold fields...

 in colonial British Columbia

Colony of British Columbia

The Colony of British Columbia was a crown colony in British North America from 1858 until 1866. At its creation, it physically constituted approximately half the present day Canadian province of British Columbia, since it did not include the Colony of Vancouver Island, the vast and still largely...

.

Elwyn, born into a family with a long military tradition, served as a lieutenant in the 30th Foot during the Crimean war

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

. He arrived in Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

 on Christmas Day, 1858 and was appointed, on the strength of his references from England, to the police force under Inspector Chartres Brew

Chartres Brew

Chartres Brew was a Gold commissioner, Chief Constable and judge in the Colony of British Columbia, later a province of Canada....

. After serving for five months as the Chief Constable of Yale

Yale, British Columbia

Yale is an unincorporated town in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It was founded in 1848 by the Hudson's Bay Company as Fort Yale by Ovid Allard, the appointed manager of the new post, who named it after his superior, James Murray Yale, then Chief Factor of the Columbia District...

, Governor James Douglas

James Douglas (Governor)

Sir James Douglas KCB was a company fur-trader and a British colonial governor on Vancouver Island in northwestern North America, particularly in what is now British Columbia. Douglas worked for the North West Company, and later for the Hudson's Bay Company becoming a high-ranking company officer...

 made him Assistant Gold Commissioner

Gold Commissioner

Gold Commissioner was an important regional administrative post in the Colony of British Columbia.In the 1860s, Governor Douglas had three priorities to protect the two colonies he governed: to protect the boundaries, to uphold law and order and to provide access to the gold fields...

 of Lillooet

Lillooet

Lillooet may refer to:*Lillooet, a town in the Fraser Canyon in British Columbia.*the St'at'imc people, also known as the Lillooet people*The Lillooet language, also known under the names of its dialects St'at'imcets and Ucwalmícwts...

. In 1861, he was put in charge of the Gold Escort from the Cariboo and Fraser Canyon goldfields. That venture was discontinued for 1862 when miners protested the government inability to guarantee the safety of the gold being transported, and though revived again in 1863, again under Elwyn and despite his personal guarantee to the miners, its failure to generate revnues to offset costs resulted in its discontinuation.

Elwyn was appointed gold commissioner of the Cariboo on April 21, 1862. In October, he resigned, citing his interest in a valuable gold claim in the area. In 1864 he was part of the party

Chilcotin War

The Chilcotin War, Chilcotin Uprising or Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in people in British Columbia and white road construction workers...

 sent by Brew to capture the Chilcotin

Tsilhqot'in

The Tsilhqot'in are a Northern Athabaskan First Nations people that live in British Columbia, Canada...

 Indians who killed a road crew on Bute Inlet

Bute Inlet

Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is 80 km long from its head at the mouths of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers to the continental headlands at its mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, and it averages about 4 km in width...

 in an incident known as the Chilcotin War

Chilcotin War

The Chilcotin War, Chilcotin Uprising or Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in people in British Columbia and white road construction workers...

. He spend the next year mining at Wild Horse Creek in the Kootenay

Kootenays

The Kootenay Region comprises the southeastern portion of British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Ktunaxa First Nation first encountered by explorer David Thompson.-Boundaries:The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay Land...

, before setting off to represent the government on the expedition to extend the Western Union Telegraph line north from Quesnel

Quesnel, British Columbia

-Demographics:Quesnel had a population of 9,326 people in 2006, which was a decrease of 7.1% from the 2001 census count. The median household income in 2005 for Quesnel was $54,044, which is slightly above the British Columbia provincial average of $52,709....

. In 1868 he joined the Legislative Council

Legislative Council of British Columbia

The Legislative Council of British Columbia was an advisory body created in 1867 to the Governor of the "new" Colony of British Columbia, which had been created from the merger of the old Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia...

, where he served for a single term. He took a short turn at driving cattle then signed aboard the HBC

Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...

 steamship Otter

Otter (steamship)

The Otter was the second steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America, following its sister ship and twin, the much more famous Beaver...

as purser

Purser

The purser joined the warrant officer ranks of the Royal Navy in the early fourteenth century and existed as a Naval rank until 1852. The development of the warrant officer system began in 1040 when five English ports began furnishing warships to King Edward the Confessor in exchange for certain...

. He was appointed deputy provincial secretary

Provincial Secretary

The Provincial Secretary was a senior position in the executive councils of British North America's colonial governments, and was retained by the Canadian provincial governments for at least a century after Canadian Confederation was proclaimed in 1867...

 in 1877, a position he held until his death.

Sources

• Dorothy Blakey Smith “Elwyn, Thomas” at Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  The Dictionary of Canadian Biography is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The DCB, which was initiated in 1959, is a collaboration between the University of Toronto and Université Laval...
  
  Online, 2000

External links

• People of the Cariboo Gold Rush- Thomas Elwyn at BC Archives