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Ross Bay Cemetery, located at 1516 Fairfield Road in Victoria, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, Canada was opened in 1873. The 27.5 acre cemetery is part of a public park and its south side faces Ross Bay on the Pacific Ocean. In 1911, a sea wall had to be constructed because of the severe erosion that occurred as a result of the relentless pounding of the ocean's waves. During the 1930s, the City began planting a large number of trees and today the cemetery is quite different than the original that was mainly barren ground.
The Victorian-style Ross Bay Cemetery, contains numerous elaborate mausoleums and tall pillars from the early elite. Because the city of Victoria is the capital of the province of British Columbia, until the second quarter of the 20th century when improved ferry service and air travel made mobility to and from the island much easier, most senior politicians made Victoria their permanent home. As such, Ross Bay Cemetery is the burial site for many of the province's premiers.
Some of the notable personalities among the more than 27,000 interred here are:
- Billy Barker (1819-1894), frontiersman, prospector
- Sir Frank Stillman Barnard (1856-1936), statesman
- Robert Beaven (1836-1920), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Sir Matthew Begbie (1819-1894), jurist known as the "Hanging judge"
- Harlan Carey Brewster (1870-1918), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Emily Carr (1871-1945), painter
- Sarah Lindley Crease (1826-1922), artist
- Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847-1889), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Theodore Davie (1852-1898), jurist, statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Amor De Cosmos (1825-1897), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Sir James Douglas (1803-1877), Hudson's Bay Co. executive, statesman
- James Dunsmuir (1851-1920), businessman, statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Andrew Charles Elliott (1828-1889), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Roderick Finlayson (1818-1892), considered the "Father of Victoria."
- John Hamilton Gray (1814-1889), jurist, statesman
- Byron Ingemar Johnson (1890-1964), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Sir Richard McBride (1870-1917), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- Joseph Despard Pemberton (1821-1893), Surveyor-General of Vancouver Island
- Sophie Pemberton (1869-1959), painter
- Edward Gawler Prior (1853-1920), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- John Robson (1824-1892), statesman, Premier of British Columbia
- George Anthony Walkem (1834-1908) statesman, Premier of British Columbia
See also: List of famous cemeteries
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