PROCEEDINGS FOR 1912 XV 
“February 27th, 1912. 
DAVID THOMPSON STATUE. 
Ricut Hon. R. L. Borpen, P.C., M.P., 
Premier of Canada, 
Ottawa. 
Sir 
” This Committee, consisting of J. B. Tyrrell, M.A., F.R.S.C., Wilfred Campbell, 
LL.D., F.R.S.C., James White, Esq., F.R.S.C., and Sir Edmund Walker, F.R.S.C., 
has been appointed by the Royal Society of Canada to endeavour to erect a monu- 
ment or statue to David Thompson, who was not only one of the greatest geographers 
that the British Race has produced, but was also the foremost pioneer in the opening 
up of Western Canada to the civilized world. 
David Thompson was a poor orphan boy from a Charity School in London, who 
entered the service of the Hudson Bay Company when he was 14 years old, and at the 
age of 19 found himself at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River, when that 
trading station was far beyond the limits of civilization, for that was in the year 
1789, 123 years ago. 
He saw that the country all around him was an unknown wilderness, and with 
the enthusiasm of youth, he started to make a survey of it. 
That enthusiasm carried him along for 23 years, during which time he surveyed 
the main rivers, lakes and mountains from Lake Huron westward to the Pacific Ocean 
and from the mouth of the Columbia River northward to Lake Athabasca. 
For this work he received no remuneration, except that which was paid him as 
an ordinary fur-trader. 
In the fall of 1812 he settled near Montreal and in the following year made a 
great map of North Western America, which has furnished the basis for every map 
of the country drawn since that date. 
In 1816 he was appointed by the British Government as its astronomer to survey 
the Boundary line between the United States and Canada, and the next 10 years 
were occupied with this work. The maps drawn by him to represent this are still the 
official sources of all information about the International Boundary Line to the South 
of Canada. They are preserved in the Government Offices at Washington and 
London, and are there known as “the Thompson Maps.” 
His Journals, consisting of 43 manuscript volumes, and his large map of North 
Western America are now deposited in the vaults of the Crown Lands Department in 
the Parliament Buildings in Toronto. From them Doctor Elliott Coues has drawn 
largely in the preparation of his book entitled “New Light on the Earlier History of 
the Greater North West,”’ which is to-day one of the most valuable records access- 
ible to the public, dealing with early life in the four Western Provinces of Canada. 
Fuller Journals dealing with his life in Western Canada from 1790 to 1812 are now in 
the hands of the Champlain Society and will shortly be published by it. 
In 1857, both David Thompson and his wife, who was a daughter of one of the 
early fur-traders by an Indian woman, died in extreme poverty and were buried side 
by side in Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. 
It is not to the credit of such a country as Canada that it should allow its great 
pioneers to be forgotten, and it has therefore been decided to endeavour to raise a 
statue to this man, who, was not only one of her greatest pioneers, but also a great and 
goodman. Inthe time when the acquisition of weatlh through the prosecution of the 
fur-trade was considered the chief object in life, he devoted his spare energies to the 
acquiring and furthering of a knowledge of the country, and endeavoured to prevent 
the Indians from being debauched by the liquor traffic. 
A sum of $10,000 will be required to execute and erect this statue, and we would 
respectfully ask that the Government of the Dominion of Canada grant the sum of 
$5,000.00 to assist in this work on the stipulation that the remaining $5,000.00 be 
subscribed. 
His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, Governor-General of Canada has 
graciously consented to grant his patronage to this praiseworthy undertaking. 
Yours sincerely, 
(Sgd.) J. B. TyRRe 1, 
WILFRED CAMPBELL, 
JAMES WHITE, 
B. E. WALKER, 
Members of the Committee.’ 
’ 
