Henry John Cambie (October 25, 1836 in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

– April 23, 1928 in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

) was a Canadian surveyor and civil engineer and a notable figure in the completion of Canada's

transcontinental railway A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...

. He was also a notable pioneer resident of Vancouver.

Life and career

Cambie was educated in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and emigrated to the

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on th ...

as a youth, where he learned to be a surveyor. In 1852, he found employment with the

Grand Trunk Pacific The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

Railway, moving to the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) seven years later. With the

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

of Canada in 1867, the CPR was contracted to build a transcontinental railway, which would link the new country and the adjacent colonies and territories of

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestow ...

. With the expansion of the railway into British Columbia, Cambie found himself as the chief surveyor for the CPR in the province. In that capacity, Cambie argued for a route through the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser ...

and terminating at the small logging community of Granville on

Burrard Inlet french: Baie Burrard , image = Burrard Inlet 201807.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Aerial view of Burrard Inlet , image_bathymetry = Burrard-Inlet-map-en.svg , alt_bathymetry ...

. He was convinced of the superiority of that route over the alternatives of

Howe Sound Howe Sound (french: Baie (de /d')Howe, squ, Átl'ka7tsem, Nexwnéwu7ts, Txwnéwu7ts) is a roughly triangular sound, that joins a network of fjords situated immediately northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia. It was designated as a UNESCO Biosp ...

and

Bute Inlet , image = Bute Inlet.jpg , image_size = 260px , alt = , caption = , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = , location = Strathcona RD, British Co ...

after a trip down the canyon to Granville in 1874. Cambie's views prevailed, and in 1876, he was made chief surveyor of the CPR's Pacific Division, a position he would hold for the next four years, following which he was promoted to chief engineer. His work completed, Cambie in 1887 settled in

, which had been incorporated as the successor to Granville the previous year. As he recalled in a later interview: ::In May 1887, much to the amusement of my friends, I went out into the country and purchased two lots at the corner of Georgia and Thurlow streets. I could not, however, induce the city to clear a track so I could reach my property until near the end of that year, when I at once started building and moved out there in 1888. I had to lay the first sidewalk on Georgia at my own expense, as the city would not do it, and when I got the telephone the company dunned me for more than a year to pay for the poles from

Granville Street Granville Street is a major street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and part of Highway 99. Granville Street is most often associated with the Granville Entertainment District and the Granville Mall. This street also cuts through resid ...

down to my place, as they told me that no one else in that generation would ever go to live west of Granville Street. The area of which Cambie spoke is now located near the centre of downtown Vancouver, in one of the most denselypopulated neighbourhoods in the country and the site of Cambie's home is now the location of Vancouver's tallest building, the

Living Shangri-La Living Shangri-La is a mixed-use skyscraper in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is the tallest building in the city and province. The 62-storey Shangri-La tower contains a 5-star hotel and its offices on the first 15 floors, with ...

. Cambie was a prominent citizen of the nascent city and was an important advocate for the development of its infrastructure. He was also instrumental in building Christ Church Cathedral, the major Anglican church in Downtown Vancouver, where he was a key figure for over forty years (a memorial plaque commemorating him can be found inside the church). In this and other developments, Cambie's connections with the CPR — and especially, its president, William Van Horne — were crucial to his success, since the company owned much of the land around Vancouver. Cambie remained employed by the CPR, only retiring in 1921.

Death

Cambie died in Vancouver in 1928 at the age of 91.

Name legacy

Roadway infrastructure

Cambie Street Cambie Street is a street in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is named for Henry John Cambie, chief surveyor of the Canadian Pacific Railway's western division (as is Cambie Road, a major thoroughfare in nearby Richmond). There are two ...

- a major thoroughfare in Vancouver, ** the Cambie Street Bridge * Cambie Road, a major east–west thoroughfare in

Richmond, British Columbia Richmond is a coastal city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough), between the two estuarine distributaries of the Fraser River. Encompassing the adja ...

Train stations

*Northeast of

Sicamous, British Columbia Sicamous is a district municipality in British Columbia located adjacent to the Trans-Canada Highway at the Highway 97A junction, where Mara Lake empties into Shuswap Lake via a short narrows. Sicamous is a resort town about halfway between C ...

(CPR). *Southwest of Glacier, British Columbia (CPR) (closed 1916). *North Richmond on British Columbia Electric Railway (closed 1958). *Proposed name for

Aberdeen station (TransLink) Aberdeen is an elevated station on the Canada Line of Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain rapid transit system. It is located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It is named after the adjacent Aberdeen Square and Aberdeen Centre, the largest of Rich ...

, in Richmond, but not adopted.

Other

* Henry James Cambie Secondary School in Richmond.

References

External links

''Living Stones: A Centennial History of Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1889-1989'', by Neale Adams

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060911192351/http://www.vancourier.com/issues06/035206/entertainment/035206en6.html ''Vancouver Courier'' article on Cambie as a pioneer resident of the city
Info. from BC Geographical Names online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cambie, Henry John 1836 births 1928 deaths Cambie Cambie Cambie Cambie, Henry People from Vancouver Immigrants to the Province of Canada Canadian Anglicans 19th-century Anglo-Irish people