Robert Dunsmuir

Robert Dunsmuir, August 31, 1825 to April 12, 1889, was a Scottish-born businessman who became the dominant coal operator on Vancouver Island after emigrating to work for the Hudson's Bay Company in 1851. His Wellington colliery alone produced 16,000 of the roughly 40,000 tons of coal mined on the island by 1873, and he co-founded the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, receiving a large land grant across Vancouver Island as an incentive. By his death his coal holdings were valued at about 15 million dollars, making him the wealthiest person in British Columbia, and he served in the provincial legislature representing Nanaimo from 1882 to 1886. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/