Along the exterior of the Legislative Library are 14 statues of individuals who held prominence in the earlier history of the territory now known as British Columbia. One of those statues depicts Sir James Douglas.
Born in 1803 in British Guiana to a Scottish merchant and a Creole 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 (HBC) in 1821, Douglas was posted to what is now British Columbia. Under the direction of HBC Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin, he chose the site and oversaw the construction of Fort Victoria in 1843. Douglas 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, despite his personal objections to representative government.
Douglas was also the first Governor of the mainland 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 newspaper-owner and political opponent Amor de Cosmos for serving two empires: the British and the Hudson’s Bay Company. However, Douglas remained a popular and influential person in both colonies. At his retirement, Douglas was knighted a Commander of the Order of the Bath for his service to the British Empire. Sir James Douglas died on August 2, 1877 in Victoria. In 1879, the people of British Columbia erected an obelisk in his honour on the front lawns of the Parliament Buildings. He is buried in Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria.
