William Fraser Tolmie

Who was William Fraser Tolmie?

William Fraser Tolmie was a Canadian surgeon, fur trader, scientist, and politician.

He was born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1812, and by 1833 moved to the Pacific Northwest in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1855 he was made Chief Factor of Fort Nisqually, an HBC post at the southern end of Puget Sound. He served at Nisqually from 1843 to 1859. In 1859 he moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where he continued serving the HBC as well as becoming active in politics.

His written works include Comparative Vocabulary of the Indian Tribes of British Columbia, and his journals, published in 1963 as The Journals of William Fraser Tolmie.