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1858 - 1946

William Bolton was born on July 3, 1858 in Kilburn, London, to Lydia Louisa (nee Pym) and James Bolton who was the Minister of St. Paul's Church. He went to Caius College, Cambridge University in 1877 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1880, and took his Master's degree three years later. At Cambridge his interests were equally divided by scholarship and sports. During the Cambridge Freshmans sports in 1877, Bolton won the mile in 4:46.6. In March 1878 at the Cambridge meet, he won the 440 yard and the mile, and ran 2:04.0 for 880 yard (half mile) on March 30. In May he won a 200 yard race. Against Oxford University at Lillie Bridge, London, on April 12 he finished 4th in the mile in 4:35.7 (estimated). He was 4th in the 880 yard in the AAC Championships (the forerunner of the AAA Championship - Amateur Athletic Association), but on November 26 he had a remarkable win in a 1000 yard handicap race at Cambridge from scratch in 2:19.8, a British record for an amateur. In 1879 he was President of CUAC (Cambridge University Athletic Club) and achieved an outstanding 880 yard time of 2:00.4 and a mile time of 4:37.0 at Cambridge on March 21. He went on to win the AAC title in the 880 yard in 2:03.6 on April 7 at Lillie Bridge, however, when he ran the mile against Oxford he failed to place. It appears as though he did not take his athletics so seriously in the Academic year 1879-80, however, he was also a spirited boxer, a footballer (both rugby and soccer) and a long distance swimmer, and an ardent tennis player when that now universal sport was in its infancy. He was proud of being a Cambridge Blue, and a member of the Achilles Club of London, which is made of both Cambridge and Oxford Blues. During his time at Cambridge, Bolton was president of the Cambridge University Athletic Club.

In 1881, he became a Deacon at the church in Lichfield in Staffordshire, and a Priest the next year. He was Curate at Stoke on Trent in 1881-84, and again in 1886-87. Between his time in Stoke on Trent (1885-86), he was a Missionary in Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1887, he was appointed Rector of St. Paul's Church, Esquimalt on Vancouver Island and ran the parish boy's school which he operated until 1890. He then went to the Cow Hollow district of San Francisco to teach and in March 1890 St. Lukes Episcopal Church sent the Reverend William Bolton to take charge of the new mission possibility developing in this expanding part of town. Bolton persuaded Frank Pixley, publisher and editor of the Argonaut, a nationally known newspaper and owner of considerable property in Cow Hollow, to donate a corner lot for the church building and in April 1891, St. Mary the Virgin became the ninth parish of the Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Father Bolton launched a firmly "high church" Anglo-Catholic parish. As the San Francisco Chronicle described it: "the ceremonials will be exceedingly elaborate of the most ritualistic order ever seen in California." Bolton remained as Rector until 1898.

On Monday February 11, 1889, at St. Paul's Church in Esquimalt, Bolton married Agnes Jane Bushby, the grand-daughter of Sir James Douglas and his wife Amelia. Douglas was known as "The Father of British Columbia." In 1891, Gerard was born while they were living in San Francisco.

In 1894 Bolton secured a leave of absence from the diocese to undertake an exploration expedition on Vancouver Island, under the auspices of the Province Publishing Company. His goal was to travel the length of Vancouver by foot and canoe. The expedition which consisted of Bolton, T. Burrough Norgate (artist), James Cartmel (timber cruiser/guide) and Pierre de Lorriol (Swiss mountaineer/hunter), began on July 4, 1894, when the team sailed from Victoria to Shushartie on the northern tip of the island. Here they picked up five more members of the expedition: J.J. Skinner (cook), W. Rudge, F. Melony, J. McCartney and H. Huston. Weather and conditions were poor and the team began running behind schedule. Upon reaching Nootka Sound they decided to avoid the unknown central mountainous region and picked up the trail from Port Alberni, in Barkley Sound, eventually reaching Victoria on well-used trails.

Back in San Francisco Bolton met John William Laing, an Oxford graduate who was teaching English Literature at nearby Mount Tamalpais Military Academy in San Rafael. Laing offered to financially back the second part of the Vancouver Island expedition by footing the $1200 needed. On June 26 he and Bolton left San Francisco for Vancouver Island. The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper dubbed Laing "The Angel of the Enterprise." In Victoria they hired C.W. Jones of Seattle a mining expert, John Garver as a cook and packer, and Edgar Fleming a photographer, for the expedition and on July 1 sailed from Victoria aboard the steamship Danube to Alert Bay on the east coast. The expedition reached Woss Lake on July 8 by canoeing up the Nimpkish River and then crossed the divide to Tahsis by way of the Oolichan Trail. They then explored the country between the head of Tlupana Inlet, Burman River, Buttle Lake, Flower Ridge and Great Central Lake passing through what is now Strathcona Provincial Park. With weather in their favour they reached Port Alberni on August 14.

Thus ended the most ambitious expedition yet undertaken on Vancouver Island. Bolton was most meticulous in keeping a journal of the trip and these provide a fascinating glimpse of life on the trail as well as a description of isolated settlements and native villages at the close of the nineteenth century.

Bolton again briefly visited the mountainous interior of the island in 1910 as part of the Crown Mountain Exploring Expediton with the Minister of Finance and Agriculture, the Honourable Price Ellison. This expedition was evaluating the tourism potential of the mountains and surrounding lakes for establishing a provincial park (Strathcona Provincial Park.)

Bolton returned to Victoria in 1898 and opened a small school for boys at his home on Belcher Avenue. Then in 1906 he was joined by James Clark Barnacle and Robert Valentine Harvey in starting University School of Victoria, but it was Bolton who was the most influential founder implanting his values: gentlemanly conduct, good manners, good sportsmanship and athletic ability. However, it was not just his values, but the energy, enthusiasm, keen mind and vigorous participation in a diverse array of interests that made Bolton unforgettable. In 1908 fifteen acres was purchased and on October 7 the Premier of British Columbia Sir Richard McBride laid the corner stone for the new institution and Dr. Young, the Minister of Education recorded:

It had been his good fortune, he stated, during the past two years, of educational matter not only in this province but throughout the Dominion, and with all due respect to the other provinces, he was assured that right here in British Columbia no better system of education, or one which showed better results, could be found. Indeed, British Columbia could be rightly termed the banner province in matters educational. The University School would, he was sure, do credit to British Columbia, to the whole Dominion, and would compare favorably with the great schools of the Mother Land, the more so when the high standing of the gentlemen in whose hands the conduct of the institution is placed, is considered.

Bolton remained warden of University School until 1920, when he left for the South Pacific to be Inspector of Schools for the New Zealand Government.

In 1920 Bolton went to the South Pacific taking a position as inspector of Schools for the New Zealand Government. In 1925, in an Auckland newspaper, Bolton chanced upon a notice asking for a teacher in Niue, a lonely little island dependency of New Zealand in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. At sixty-seven Bolton was really thinking about retiring, but when he learned that the Niue post was not wanted by others because of its remoteness, he immediately offered his services. He spent nearly three years teaching children in Niue, and then in 1928, set out for Tahiti to rest for the remainder of his days.

In A True Story, by James Norman Hall, he tells much about the energy and character of Bolton based on interviews and a personal friendship while both lived in Tahiti.

He had rested, perhaps a week when he became interested in Polynesian history as it concerns Tahiti. He discovered that a great deal of field work yet needed to be done; so he started tramping the island over, exploring the sites of ancient buildings and the scenes of ancient happenings, reading neglected manuscripts, making researches that no one before him had had the energy or the interest or the patience to make. The results are two thick manuscript volumes written out in his beautiful Spencerian hand.

Reverend William Washington Bolton died in Tahiti on July 28, 1946, at the age of eighty-eight and left behind him a legacy to be admired of a bewildering number of achievements. His energy and interest knew no bounds, and every person who were in contact with him in someway were touched by him. On the west coast of Vancouver Island is Bolton Lake named after the exploring rector, however, many names on the maps he drew of the area he explored have been officially adopted as common place names today.

In 1971 the University School of Victoria eventually amalgamated with another old Victoria school St. Michael's which was founded in 1910 by Kyrle W. Symons. In Symon's esteem he considered Bolton to be "the doyen of school teachers." The two schools become St. Michaels University School. It still stands on the grounds purchased by Bolton in 1908.

Sources:
Van Roggen, Jane (Bolton's Grand-daughter). Personal communication. 2010.

Thorne, Dr. Chris. Personal communication. 2010.

Lovesey, Peter. Personal communication. 2010.

Lovesey, Peter. The Official Centenary History of the AAA (Amateur Athletic Association). Guinness Superlative, United Kingdom. 1979.

"Matrimonial." Victoria Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (February 12, 1889) p. 4.

"Exploring Vancouver Island." Victoria Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (May 6, 1896) p.

"Rector Bolton Goes Exploring." San Francisco Chronicle. [San Francisco, California.] (June 26, 1896)

"Exploring the Island." Victoria Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (August 16, 1896) p. 1.

"A Land of Wonder." Victoria Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (January 17, 1897) p. 8.

"In Vancouver Wilds." Victoria Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (May 4, 1898) p. 5.

"Corner Stone of New School "Truly Laid"." Victoria Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] (October 8, 1908) p. 15. Photo - p. 2.

"Ex-Victorian, W. Bolton, 85, walks 40 Miles." The Daily Colonist. [Victoria, B.C.] {June 30, 1944)

Bolton, W.W.:Laing, J.W. "Exploring Northern Jungles: I. Across Vancouver , from Alert Bay to Tahsis. II. The Central Crags of Vancouver." The Overland Monthly. Vol. 29. Overland Monthly Publishing Co. San Francisco, California. 1897.

Bolton, W.W. Vancouver Island by land and water. Transcript's of Bolton's journals in the months of July and August 1894, and July and August 1896, in the British Columbia Archives and Records Service.

"Mr. Bolton's Birthday." Heritage. St. Michael's University School magazine. Vol. 1 #4. Summer 1982. p. 32-34.

"University School As It Was In The Beginning, Is Not, And Never Shall Be." Heritage. St. Michael's University School magazine. Fall 1987. p. 4-7.

Bousfield, Peter and Wilson, Rob. "An Unforgettable Character: Reverend William Washington Bolton." St. Michael's University School (SMUS) website online.

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