John Sebastian Helmcken

Helmcken arrived in Victoria as a Hudson's Bay Company physician in 1850, tending miners, fur traders, and Indigenous families. He married Cecilia Douglas, daughter of Governor James Douglas, and served as Speaker of the colonial legislature for two decades.

In 1870, Helmcken was chosen as one of three delegates dispatched to Ottawa to negotiate terms of union with Canada. He secured crucial financial guarantees and the federal commitment to build a transcontinental railway to the Pacific within ten years.