THE CAPTAIN:
CORRECT SPELLING: Lieutenant Edmund Hope Verney, RN brings civilization
FROM THE LAP OF LUXURY
Edmund Verney was born into privilege in 1838. His family's grand estate at Claydon House [LINK TO CLAYDON HOUSE MATERIALS], which was to be his one day, was a typical English aristocratic country home at the time, encompassing villages and farms from whose rents the family gained their comfortable income. Edmund's father Sir Harry Verney was, however, a staunch Liberal MP (MOVED1.5 SENTENCES FROM HERE TO RIGHT WINDOW) - [LINK TO #2 IN RIGHT WINDOW ON HARRY VERNEY]. It is due to regular correspondence between Edmund and Sir Harry [LINK TO TEXT ON PRITCHARD] that today we enjoy such highly detailed knowledge about Verney's time on Vancouver Island SHORTENED AND REWORDED THIS SENTENCE.
TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
When Edmund Verney came to Vancouver Island to command HMS Grappler [LINK TO GRAPPLER PIC AND INFO], he was to display the same tendencies as his father, involving himself heavily in organizations and causes which he believed REMOVED 'TO BE' progressive enough to be worthy of his attention. No doubt this great activity was responsible for the many friends he made on Vancouver Island, CHANGED WORDING HERE among whom the McKenzies of Craigflower are especially notable.
The Royal Navy had used Esquimalt as a base since 1848, but only in the four years before Verney's arrival in 1862 had it developed [LINK TO INFO ON ESQUIMALT] a complete naval infrastructure CHANGED WORDING. The Grappler's duties during its assignment to the twin colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island were certainly what we might expect from Imperial duty of a small ship at a far-flung post: assisting and ferrying settlers, patrolling for smugglers, and participating in police actions, especially against First Nations peoples suspected of crimes or harassment of European settlers.1
BUILDING A MORAL EMPIRE
Verney's liberal sentiments do seem to have influenced him while carrying out these tasks. Despite a somewhat incongruous distaste for the local First Nations (an attitude which seems to have waned during his time on the coast, even leading him to criticize the government for failing to honour promises to them), he does not seem to have ever fired his ship's guns in action and indeed was thankful to have missed the bombardment of a First Nations village on Kuper Island in the Gulf Islands SHORTENED THIS SENTENCE.2 Later in life, he became critical of aspects of the British imperial project and apparently attended an anti-flogging meeting in Portsmouth in 1879, an activity over which the Admiralty was most displeased.3
In Victoria, Verney was involved with organizations as diverse as the Immigration Board (and particularly the Female Immigration Committee, an enterprise in which capacity he was assisted by his father), the Lighthouse Board, and the Vancouver Island Bible Society. He was also appointed as a magistrate and was a key force in the establishment of ADDED 'THE' the Mechanics Literary Institute, Victoria's first public library. Verney gave speeches at many events [ADD RIGHT WINDOW LINK RE VERNEY'S FATHER'S WARNINGS], presumably seen as an appropriate representative of imperial sentiments in Britain.4 When Verney departed Victoria in 1865, a farewell dinner was thrown at the French Hotel and included an address signed by 75 of the city's (admittedly self-described) "most respectable citizens."5
REMOVED PARAGRAPH HERE - MOVED TO RIGHT WINDOW AS PER ABOVE NOTE
AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP
It seems that Verney's first encounter with the McKenzie family was when Kenneth rented Verney his first cottage at Esquimalt at a rate of 25 pounds per year. Verney's first Christmas (1862) at Craigflower was particularly memorable for him, and during that evening "the cement of friendship was run in." [LINK TO LONGER DESCRIPTION] In February 1863, he noted that he had spent every Sunday with the McKenzies since his arrival the previous May, with the exception of days when the Grappler was not in port. The young officer apparently took an interest, not surprising given his many connections in the community, in helping his farming friends increase their station in REMOVED 'COLONIAL' life - Verney wrote that he was delighted to see, at a picnic one afternoon, McKenzie engaged in a long conversation with the governor.6
Verney's close relationship with the McKenzies continued after he left the colony, and in November 1865, soon after arriving at his family home, he sent a package and letter back to Craigflower. The affection between the two parties is clear in the jocular and comfortable tone of the letter. [LINK TO VERNEY LETTER] Finally, in 1909, 44 years after he left Victoria and one year before his death, Verney received a postcard from 'Goodie' McKenzie, showing Esquimalt Harbour as it then looked.7
THE OLD WORLD MEETS THE NEW [THIS SECTION COMPLETELY REWRITTEN]
Edmund Verney's friendship with the McKenzie family exemplifies the social possibilities of a distant colony. It is difficult to imagine an English country gentleman eating Christmas dinner with a Scottish farming family at home in Britain. Indeed, given Verney's criticism of the ruling circle of Governor Douglas and his associates, and his desire to see them replaced by a more 'civilized' (i.e. English) administration, Verney's relationship with the McKenzies seems even more unlikely.8
Considering Verney's participation in institutions which he believed would civilize the colony alongside his friendship with the McKenzies, it seems that he embodies two apparently antithetical imperial processes: the escape from the social strictures of Britain and the attempt by the ruling classes to impose English civilization on the growing colonial societies. Acknowledging the negotiation which took place between these two processes offers valuable insight into the development of North American colonial societies.
Notes: THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CHANGES HERE
1 Allan Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 1862-65 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996), 23-24.
2 Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 38-39, 43, and 132
3 Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 43 and Peter Davis, "Lieutenant Edmund Hope Verney RN," William Loney RN - Victorian Naval Surgeon
4 Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 28-31.
5 Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 32.
6 Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 202.
7 Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 52.
8 Allan Pritchard, "Letters of a Victorian Naval Officer: Edmund Verney in British Columbia, 1862-65," in BC Studies 86 (Summer 1990): 39-41.
VERNEY RIGHT WINDOW LINKS
Image in right window when page opens: verney.gif
#1:
image - claydonhouse.jpg
text - Claydon House as it appears today, preserved by Britain's National Trust. Verney is partly responsible for their statement that the house has "Fascinating associations with...the Crimean War." Florence Nightingale, whose sister was Verney's stepmother, would no doubt also be responsible for some of these fascinations.
Source: The National Trust, Claydon House
#2:
image - harryverney.jpg
text - Sir Harry Verney sat in the House of Commons for the Liberal party for 52 years, from 1832 to 1885. He dedicated himself to many of the progressive reforms which are now seen as the benchmarks of Britain's development into a modern society during the Victorian period: combating slave trading, extending the franchise, and improving conditions in the country's booming industrial towns and factories.
Source: Allan Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 1862-65 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996), 9 and reproduction of an illustration following page 120.
#3:
text - The authors wish to include a special thanks to Allan Pritchard, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Toronto (now living in British Columbia), who unearthed and discovered Verney's British Columbia letters to his father in the archives at Claydon House and published them in 1996 along with a most helpful, thorough and concise introduction. Without Pritchard's work, Verney would likely have remained too inaccessible to us to include in this site, despite his representation of a most interesting Imperial relationship.
#4:
image - grapplerpainting.jpg
Source: National Maritime Museum, "HMS Grappler," Prints and Drawings
text - Verney's Grappler. The ship had both sail and steam power and was about 160 feet in length with a 22-foot beam.
Source: Allan Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 1862-65 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996), 22.
#5:
image - esquimalt1858.gif
image - esquimalt1870.gif
text - Esquimalt in 1858 and 1870, showing the development from a somewhat jumbled mass of small buildings to a cluster of solid-looking permanent naval establishments. Note also the large fleet at anchor in 1870 - this might be a 'flying squadron' which visited on a Pacific tour in May of that year. Verney arrived at a particularly crucial time in the Esquimalt bases's history. Between 1858 and 1862, a barracks, a coal depot, a magazine, and the Fisgard lighthouse were all added, creating a permanent base for the British Empire's key instrument. With this work complete, the headquarters of the Navy's Pacific Squadron was moved to Esquimalt from far-off Valparaiso, Chile in 1862, the same year that Verney arrived to assume his new command.
Source: Government of Canada, "The Royal Navy Patrols the West Coast," Canadian Military Heritage
# 6:
POLITICS IN THE COLONIES
text - Verney was warned by his father not to be too engaged in activities which might be seen as improperly political for a naval officer - and which might endanger his future as a country gentleman and political figure once he was home in England.# Presumably for this reason, Verney kept quiet - except to his father - about his strong belief that Governor James Douglas, the old HBC man whose circle of family and friends had a tight grip on the colony's administration, had to be removed as soon as possible and replaced by a leader who could better bring English civilization to the colony.#
Source: Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 31 and 34-35.
#7:
CHRISTMAS AT CRAIGFLOWER
text - From Verney's letter of December 26, 1862: "At 5 P.M. I went up to dine with the McKenzies of Craig Flower: here was assembled a large party; dinner was followed by toasts, not forgetting 'absent friends', toasts were followed by songs, songs by tea, tea by charades, charades, by dancing, dancing by blind-man's-bluff, and blind-man's-bluff was the entertainment followed by all. The amusements of the evening were sprinkled with negus, and the crannies were stopped with Scotch cake and bun: then being warmed with hospitality and genial heartiness, a cement of friendship was run in, which at once took a natural polish. The first yawn was observed on the countenance of the smallest child at about 12.25., and at 1.15. I was in bed on board the 'Grappler': there were no signs of breaking up when I left, and for all I know, the may be dancing yet."
Source: Pritchard, Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney, 110-111.
#8:
image - verneyletterfront.jpg
image - verneyletterback.jpg
text - The first paragraph of Verney's letter to the McKenzies, preserved in the BC Archives, reads: "Herewith I send numerous little Christmas and New Year remembrances to some of my friends. If any of them feel offended or insulted at my sending such trumpery things from England, as I am too far off to be kicked, ask them to do it by proxy: Kenneth will act for me."
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