posted to Nanaimo in 1857. His life was busy with caring for the sick as well as performing civic duties such as acting as the returning officer for the District of Nanaimo. In the election of May 20, 1859, held at the Bastion at no particular time, Mr. John George Barnston of Victoria was elected to the House of Assembly by Charles E. Stuart. Yes, Stuart was the only voter. The election was done “peaceably, quietly and without any rioting or fighting,” according to a tongue-in-cheek letter to the British Colonist. Marriage finally fit into Benson’s life when he married Ellen Phillips,


the sister of Mrs. Edward E. Langford (née Flora Phillips), in Esquimalt in 1860. It may not have been the most politically astute choice for Dr. Benson as Mr. Langford, the bailiff of Colwood Farm, had become a bitter foe of Governor Douglas. Sadly, after two years, Ellen Benson died leaving him once again an eccentric bachelor. It was also around this time that Benson, from April 7 to April 9, 1892,


aided by the Reverend J.B. Good, vaccinated 165 Snuneymuxw for smallpox. On December 8, 1862, Benson was given a choice of returning to


Fort Victoria or accepting a new post with the Vancouver Coal and Land Company. The Hudson’s Bay Company had sold their mining operations to the new company leaving Benson in the lurch. The choice was made. He stayed in Nanaimo and also opened his own medical practice. In 1863, coal was discovered near Chase River, south of Nanaimo, and


Benson applied to lease 3,000 acres. It was the beginning of Benson’s coal mining adventure. He needed someone with deeper pockets and found a naval officer to form a partnership with. The Harewood Coal


Company was formed with the Honourable Horace Douglas Lascelles, the seventh son of the third Earl of Harewood. [Incidentally, “Harewood” was pronounced ‘Harwood’!] Lascelles was the captain of Her Majesty’s gunboat called Forward


stationed at Esquimalt. The company sought and obtained almost 9,000 additional acres. To operate the company, Benson and Lascelles hired a Nanaimo man, a canny Scot with years of experience in the coal business on the Island. The company soon faltered mainly because there was no sea access for the company’s coal and it was sold to another captain, Thomas Bulkey. The manager was, of course, the famous Robert Dunsmuir who had left the firm after a year realizing the state it was in. [If you’re not sure who Dunsmuir was, then, I would suggest visiting Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria]. Dr. Benson returned to his old home in Whitby (in 1864?) and later died of diabetes, valvular disease of the heart, and exhaustion on December 9, 1886. He was 71 years old. Captain Lascelles died on June 17, 1869 at the Naval Hospital in Esquimalt. Mount Benson received its third name from one of Dr. Benson’s


friends, Captain G.H. Richards R.N., captain of the survey ships known as HMS Plummer and HMS Hecate. Acknowledgements: Black Diamond City, British Colonist, The Nanaimo


IT


Free Press, and The Reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken. Read this article and more at www.islandtimesmagazine.ca.


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IT Victoria Times Colonist, December 25th, 1861 8 | islandtimesmagazine.ca


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