About the Author

J.F. Bosher is the elder son of British emigrants to North Saanich, Vancouver Island, and had a career as a professor of history at King's College London, the University of British Columbia, Cornell University, and York University, Toronto. After writing several books about 18th century France and other subjects in French history, he turned in retirement to the study of Vancouver Island in what he calls its Imperial century, circa 1850-1950. He has spent 12 years compiling information about British immigrants on the Island, including British officers and civil servants from India, personnel from the Royal Navy, the R.A.F., and others who served in Tibet, Malaya, China, Hong Kong, Africa, and of course the British Isles, including the Channel Isles. These by their presence made the Island quite different from the rest of Canada, which seemed all the more natural because it was a British colony, entirely separate from Canada, during the first quarter of a century of its existence.