Richard Blanshard (1817-1894), a barrister who previously served the West Indies, is appointed Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island after the Colonial Office rejects Hudson’s Bay Company’s recommendation that James Douglas becomes governor, as Douglas already represented the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company as chief factor. As almost all the colonial residents of the Vancouver Island were Hudson’s Bay Company employees, James Douglas serves as the de facto leader and severely undermines Blanshard’s authority. Blanshard resigns shortly after in 1851.

Hendrickson, James E. “BLANSHARD, RICHARD,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography 12, (1990). Accessed February 28, 2021. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/blanshard_richard_12E.html.  

Sage, W.N. (Walter Noble). Sir James Douglas and British Columbia. (Toronto: The University of Toronto Press, 1930), 148, 170.