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Description area
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History
John Sebastian Helmcken was born at Whitechapel, London, 1824; educated at St George's German and English School, 1828; apprentice to Dr Graves to train as a chemist and druggist, 1839-1841; student, Guy's Hospital, 1844; first prize for Practical Chemistry and second prize for Materia Medica, 1845; Licentiate of the Apothecaries Company, 1847; won one of the two Pupils Physical prizes; Ship's Surgeon with the Hudson's Bay Company, 1847; made voyages to Hudson's Bay and Bombay, India; admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons, 1848; surgeon for the Hudson's Bay Company emigrants, Vancouver Island, 1850; Hudson's Bay Company surgeon to Fort Rupert in May 1850; appointed magistrate in 1850; maintained private practice in Victoria; member of the first Legislative Assembly of Vancouver Island for Esquimalt and Victoria, 1856; Speaker of the Assembly, 1856-1866; elected as a member for Esquimalt/Metchosin, 1860; President of the Board of Directors for the Royal Jubilee Hospital, 1862-1872, as well as serving as Doctor to the Jail; Chief Trader of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1863-1870; Surgeon, Hudson's Bay Company at Victoria, 1863; elected to the Legislative Council of British Columbia for Victoria/Esquimalt, 1866; re-elected to the Legislative Council, 1868; one of three negotiators at Ottawa to negotiate British Columbia's entry into Canada; appointed to the Executive Council of British Columbia, 1869; retired from politics, 1871; continued practicing medicine as physician to the jail until retiring, 1910; President, British Columbia Medical Association, 1885; died, 1920.
Publications include: The reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken edited by Dorothy Blakey Smith (University of British Columbia Press [1975]); To the electors of Esquimalt and Metchosin District. gentlemen, the Legislative Assembly has been dissolved, a general election will shortly ensue [1863?]; To the electors of Esquimalt and Metchosin District. fellow colonists having received an address signed by several of the electors in our district, requesting me again to become a candidate for your suffrage etc [1863?].