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David ThompsonJune 2007: Ray Mears unveils green plaque in honour of David Thompson
On Tuesday 26th June 2007, Survival Expert and TV Personality Ray Mears unveiled a Westminster green plaque at the St Andrews building of The Grey Coat Hospital, in honour of David Thompson who attended school at Grey Coat here in the 1700's. You can find out more about David Thompson in the history below.
The event was attended by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Carolyn Keen and the Deputy High Commissioner for Canada, Mr Guy Saint Jacques, among governors, staff and contacts of the school. It was a wonderful occasion that highlighted the significance of Thompson in his exploration and mapping of Canada. With thanks to The Grey Coat Hospital Foundation who sponsored the plaque, and to the Canadian Tourism Commission for sponsoring the event.
 
 
History of David Thompson
Most people in the UK are unaware of David Thompson but in Canada he is regarded a national hero. David Thompson is a former student of The Grey Coat Hospital who attended the school in 1777 until 1784, and left for Canada after being given an apprenticeship with the Hudson Bay Company, where he then went on to explore and map much of Western Canada. This is his story, taken from a leaflet designed and written by former Head Teacher, Marion Parsons:
David Thompson was born in Marsham Street, Westminster on April 30th, 1770. His father, a Welshman, died early and his mother remarried. In 1777 David was sent to The Grey Coat Hospital where he excelled at mathematics. At the age of fourteen David and another boy were chosen to be apprenticed for seven years to the Hudson Bay Company but the other boy was frightened and ran away, unable to face the long and perilous sea journey and the terrors of an unknown land. David, however, left the teeming Westminster streets of his childhood and began a new life far away. Westminster promptly forgot him.
His new life began in a desolated fort on the shores of the Hudson Bay with its dark, dreary and intensely cold winters and the hot summers with the swarms of mosquitos, whose attacks made even the dogs howl in agony.
Kitted out with a trunk, a handkerchief, shoes, shirts, a gun, powder and a tin cup, he was sent with others into the interior to establish trading posts on the Saskatchewan. The Hudson Bay Company's fortune was made from supplying the native Indians with guns, axes and kettles and beads as well as the 'fire water' which made the Indians so dependent on the white traders in exchange for the furs: beaver, fox and otter. David had to learn to barter with the different tribes of Indians; Sioux, Piegan, Iroquois, Blackfoot.
In the winter of 1789-90 he put his mathematics to good use, learning the technique of surveying and for the next seven years he carried out very extensive surveys for the Hudson Bay Company, thus beginning the study of geography, astronomy and mapmaking for which he became famous. This involved lengthy journeys on foot, on horse, with dogs and sledges and in canoes, often in the depths of winter when the cold was intense.
We know about the journeys he made from the journals that he kept regularly (now in Ontario Archives). These describe in detail the landscape, the animals, the life style of the native Indians at the moment of contact with Europeans as well as the work of trappers and settlers. His style was laconic, filled with measurements and calculations.
In 1797 he joined the North West Company as Astonomer and Surveyor, to locate and map their trading posts and the waterways connecting them and this assignment he completed over two years. He continued to map and trade furs until the end of the century and eventually he was made partner in that company.
In 1799 Thompson married Charlotte Small. She was the daughter of a trader from a famous Irish family and an Indian woman and she too was to accompany him on several of his journeys.
In 1807 Thompson made his most famous journey. It was a carefully planned but perilous journey through the Rocky mountains to the Pacific Ocean, encountering many different tribes of Indians, some distinctly unfriendly. They carted heavy equipment and supplies marching until the explorers' feet were crippled, canoeing through turbulent rapids on fast flowing rivers, through ice and snow. Throughout it all and despite disputes within the party Thompson was indomitable: courageous and calming. He established trading posts en route and he was responsible for finding and mapping a navigable route from the Rocky Mountains to the Western Ocean which was followed by immigrants, fur traders and adventurers alike until the Canadian Pacific Railway was built some 74 years later.
Thompson's fame rests on this exploration and his work in mapping the area west of the Rockies (now British Columbia) and which contributed to the charting of the official boundary between the United States and Canada. It is in this area that the David Thompson River is to be found, (between Vancouver and Wells National Park, starting near the highest point in the Rockies), named after him in recognition of his contribution to the mapping of Western Canada. It is estimated that Thompson travelled, in all, not less than fifty thousand miles, a record few Western explorers have equalled. Much of this was through country hitherto untrodden by the feet of white men.
Until 1812 when David Thompson retired to Montreal with his wife he continued to trade with the Indian nations but he refused, as he had at the beginning of his career, to barter with guns and alcohol. The story is told of how partners in the Company commanded that he should take kegs of alcohol on an expedition to an unexplored part of Western Canada. Knowing the deplorable effects of spirits on the Indians Thompson refused. They insisted. A man of principle as well as physical courage Thompson found a solution. He ordered that the barrels be loaded on the back of a vicious horse. By noon the kegs were empty, broken to pieces.
No one here would have known that this Old Grey had made such a success of his life but for the quite unexpected arrival of a letter one hundred years later. This was received by Elsie Day, the Headmistress of the school in 1890, from Mr J.B. Tyrell, Geologist to the Candian Survey. He visited the Hospital in 1900 and as Miss Day writes, "spoke of Thompson as a man of great power, highly esteemed. In his autobiography, Thompson describes his delight in mathematics while at school, and his constant practice, in the playground, and when out for walks, of mensuration". Granddaughters of Thompson were personally known to Mr Tyrell, who was most enthusiastic in his praise of this 'Old Grey'".
Throughout his career Thompson was one of those whose influence among the Indians was almost wholly for the good and they admired and respected him. Thompson was more than a trader: he had the mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet and throughout his life he was a credit to the school which educated him. The Founders would hardly have guessed how far one of their pupil's feet would take him, but they would recognise his principles as those they sought to encourage.
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