W. D. Gosset

Major-General William Driscoll Gosset FRSE (also Gossett; 13 April 1822 – 19 May 1899) was a British Royal Engineers officer who was one of seven officers of the elite Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, that founded British Columbia as the Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866); and who served as 6th Surveyor General of Ceylon.

Early life He was born in Charleville, County Cork, into a prominent Anglo-Irish family of Huguenot descent, the second son of Major John Noah Gossett (1793–1870) of the Rifle Brigade and his wife, Maria Margaret Driscoll (1796-1883).

He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1840 and was involved in survey work in Britain 1840 to 1850. He was promoted to captain in November 1850.

He was for his mapping work elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1850, subsequent to his proposal by Charles Piazzi Smyth.

Ceylon In September 1855 Gossett was appointed 6th Surveyor General of Ceylon, He was active in recruiting and interviewing assistants in London, but failed to spot embezzlement by the survey's head clerk.

British Columbia Gosset was appointed to the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, as Colonial Treasurer, in November 1858, and arrived in Esquimalt on Christmas Day 1858. and uncovered bookkeeping issues, and recommended the dismissal of Alexander Caulfield Anderson.

He served as Colonial Treasurer and Postmaster of British Columbia until 1860, when he became treasurer of Vancouver Island. Gosset was replaced as Treasurer in 1862.

Family In 1852, Gosset at Eton, Berkshire, married his cousin, Helena Dorothea Gosset (b. 1830), who was the daughter of Isaac Gosset (1782 – 1855) and the granddaughter of James Lind of Windsor. They had one son Ernest A. Gossett.