MR. FAWCETT RETIRES FROM THE CUSTOMS.
"Pioneer Pensioned by the Department--One of the Oldest Residents
of the City.
"After twenty-nine years' service in His Majesty's customs as
assistant appraiser in charge of the Postal Package and Express
Office, Mr. Edgar Fawcett has just received word that he has been
retired with a substantial pension. While glad to retire, Mr. Fawcett
said he feels that he will miss the favor he has met with at the
Customs House week by week for so many years.
"Mr. Fawcett was presented with an address by the customs staff
yesterday and a presentation was made of a leather chair and stool.
The presentation address was signed by every member of the customs
staff.
"Mr. Edgar Fawcett is a pioneer. He came to Victoria in 1859 and is
one of the best informed men in the city concerning the history and
material development of this portion of the province, and he himself
has taken no insignificant part in affairs of a general public
nature. He has written many reminiscences of early days in Victoria
and is a recognized authority along these lines.
[Portrait: Fawcett as Rifle Volunteer.]
"Mr. Fawcett is a native of Australia, having been born of English
ancestry at Sydney, N.S.W., on February 1st, 1847. His father, who
was a carpet manufacturer at the noted British manufactory of
carpets, Kiddermaster, was a cousin of Sir Rowland Hill, the
British Postmaster-General, whose work for the penny post is known.
The family emigrated to Australia in 1838, and remained there until
1849, when they were among the 'forty-niners' to become pioneers of
California. Mr. Fawcett, Sr., invested at San Francisco in a vessel
which he engaged in freighting lumber between British Columbia and
San Francisco, and this craft was lost in the Straits of Juan de Fuca
in 1857, causing him some financial embarrassment. In 1858 the father
came to Victoria to recoup his fortunes, the family following a year
later. Mr. Fawcett, Sr., was an honored citizen of Victoria for
thirty years, and for three years filled the post of Government agent
at Nanaimo. In 1889 he returned to England and died at the age of
seventy-six years. Of his sons, Edgar Fawcett and Rowland W. Fawcett
remained in British Columbia.
"Mr. Fawcett came to Victoria as a boy of twelve years of age, and in
the early period of the city's history, when there was little more
than a village on the site of the old fort, he used his facilities of
observation to good advantage, and carries in his memory exact
impressions and scenes as he then saw them. He received his early
education in Victoria at the Collegiate School and the Colonial
School, and began his business career with his brother as an
upholsterer until 1882, when he entered the Dominion Civil Service,
first as a clerk in the custom house, and he has been promoted from
time to time.
"Mr. Fawcett served as a sergeant in the old Victoria Rifle
Volunteers, afterward merged into the Canadian militia under Colonel
Wolfenden. He was among the first to join the volunteer fire
department of Victoria. He is the only remaining charter member of
the Pioneers' Society, and was secretary at the first meeting
when organized in Smith's Hall, Victoria, in 1871. He is a veteran
member of the Oddfellows, having joined the order in 1868. He is a
veteran member of the church committee of the Reformed Episcopal
Church, and was active in the organization of this church about
thirty-five years ago."