Douglas, Sir James (1803-1877), served as the first governor of the British colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, in what is now Canada. He was born on Aug. 15, 1803, in Demerara, British Guiana (now Guyana), and was educated in the United Kingdom. In 1819, he went to Quebec to work for the North West Company, a Montreal fur-trading firm. The rival Hudson’s Bay Company took over the North West Company in 1821.
From 1839 to 1858, Douglas served as chief officer in the Columbia territory for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1843, he founded Fort Victoria (now Victoria) as the company’s headquarters west of the Rocky Mountains. The fort stood on Vancouver Island, which became a British colony in 1849. Douglas governed the colony from 1851 to 1864. The discovery of gold led the British to claim part of the nearby mainland, which became the colony of British Columbia in 1858. Douglas governed the new colony until 1864. In 1863, he was knighted. Douglas died on Aug. 2, 1877.
