Mervin Vavasour

Mervin Vavasour
Born	1821
Died	March 27, 1866
Occupation	member of Royal Engineers

Mervin Vavasour (1821 - March 27, 1866) was a member of the Royal Engineers, one of the corps of the British Army.

Oregon Mission

In 1845-46, Vavasour, and Henry James Warre, both lieutenants, were dispatched on a mission to evaluate the logistics of a military campaign in the Columbia District (known then to Americans as Oregon Country). This was done in response to a territorial dispute, generally known as the Oregon Question, and the stated policy of United States President James K. Polk to expand into and control those territories along the west coast of North America, much of which the British contested as belonging to them. Vavasour and Warre travelled in the guise of civilian fur traders through territory controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, confidentially evaluating the strategic potency of both the land and the HBC's facilities. This information made its way back to London, United Kingdom, in 1846.

Fort Victoria Plan	Fort Edmonton Plan

Fortunately for Britain, a war over Oregon Country was averted by diplomacy. Several factors suggest that the British Army may have been in an untenable position in the region, should they be deployed for a conflict: Vavasour's poor evaluation of the readiness of the HBC facilities for military uses, the ease with which Americans were already able to cross into British territory, and the obstacle posed by the Rocky Mountains to supply lines.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

Vavasour published his notes and the images drawn by Warre in Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory (1849). From this comes some of the earliest European artistic renderings of the Rocky Mountains and also valuable records such as an 1846 plan diagram of Fort Edmonton to scale. This plan influenced the reconstruction of the fort as Fort Edmonton Park, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in the 1960s.

There is also Mount Vavasour in Alberta, Canada, named for Vavasour in 1918; it is south of Mount Warre, named for Warre.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Persondata
Name	Vavasour, Mervin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1821
Place of birth
Date of death	March 27, 1866
Place of death

This biographical article related to the British Army is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: 1821 births 1866 deaths Woolwich graduates Royal Engineers officers History of the Pacific Northwest Oregon Country Explorers of Canada British Army personnel stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая? André Bugnon Altfrid Look at other dictionaries: Vavasour Baronets — There have been five Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Vavasour, three in the Baronetage of England and two in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. As of 2008 four of the creations are extinct while one is extant.The Vavasour… …   Wikipedia Fort Edmonton — (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson s Bay Company from 1795 to 1891, all of which were located in central Alberta, Canada. It was also the end point of the Carlton Trail, the main overland route for …   Wikipedia Christopher William Codrington — Sir Christopher William Codrington (12 March 1805 – 24 June 1864)[1], of Dodington, Gloucestershire, was a British MP for East Gloucestershire between 7 August 1834 and 24 June 1864 and a landowner in Gloucestershire. Codrington was first elected …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”