In the Chilko Lake area of British Columbia you will find several
features that have names associated with the Battle of Coronel, whether
they were intended as a memorial to the battle is unknown as no conclusive
evidence to this has been found. If however they were meant to commemorate
the battle then only the initial names suggested, Good Hope and Monmouth,
could be considered as such, the others were then named in logical
association following the long standing mountaineering tradition of
assigning names by a theme.
On June 6, 1923, Richard Preston Bishop, BCLS (British Columbia Land
Surveyor), suggested the names of Good Hope and Monmouth, after the
Royal Navy armoured cruisers HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth. He and
his assistant, George Durham, had climbed both peaks in a 1922 whilst
carrying out a triangulation survey. On May 6, 1924, the names of
Mount Good Hope and Mount Monmouth were adopted, the form of the names
were later changed to Good Hope Mountain (April 16, 1950) and Monmouth
Mountain (September 6, 1951). |
Monmouth Mountain
Photograph by Don Funk of the
|
|
The theme was later expanded by an Alpine Club of Canada in 1953 to
include; Admiral Ridge (adopted 1965), Canopus Mountain (adopted 1965),
Coronel Mountain (adopted 1965), Cradock Glacier (adopted 1960), Glasgow
Mountain (adopted 1965), Mount Cradock (adopted 1965) and Otranto
Mountain (adopted 1960).
In 1957, the theme was further expanded by an Alpine Club of Canada
with the inclusion of Dresden Mountain, Leipzig Mountain and Scharnhorst
Mountain, with all three names later being adopted.
Richard Preston Bishop was born on September 14, 1884, in Starcross,
Devon, England. He was an officer in the British Admiralty (1906-07),
and gained his commission as a Land Surveyor in 1911. He carried out
surveys, in British Columbia near Lillooet in 1912 and 1913 as well
as in the Cariboo, north of Quensel, in 1915. During World War 2 he
served as a Captain. On February 13, 1954, he died at Victoria aged
70. The Bishop River (originally East Fork Southgate River), which
flows west into Southgate River, southwest of Chilko Lake, was named
after him in 1923 and adopted on May 6, 1924. |
| FEATURE |
ELEVATION (mtrs) |
LATITUDE |
LONGITUDE |
| Admiral Ridge |
2547 |
51°06’00’’ |
124°09’00’’ |
| Canopus Mountain |
2734 |
51°04’00’’ |
124°13’00’’ |
| Coronel Mountain |
2668 |
51°04’00’’ |
124°10’00’’ |
| Cradock Glacier |
- |
51°02’00’’ |
124°14’00’’ |
| Cradock, Mount |
2823 |
51°03’00’’ |
124°14’00’’ |
| Dresden Mountain |
2656 |
51°03’00’’ |
124°10’00’’ |
| Glasgow Mountain |
2923 |
51°08’00’’ |
124°08’00’’ |
| Good Hope Mountain |
3242 |
51°09’00’’ |
124°11’00’’ |
| Leipzig Mountain |
2715 |
51°04’00’’ |
124°14’00’’ |
| Monmouth Mountain |
3182 |
50°59’00’’ |
123°47’00’’ |
| Otranto Mountain |
2714 |
51°05’00’’ |
124°14’00’’ |
| Scharnhorst Mountain |
2588 |
51°03’00’’ |
124°12’00’’ |
| Bishop River |
- |
50°59’00’’ |
124°22’00’’ |
|
Sources
British Columbia Geographical Names Information System, Ministry of
Substainable Resource Management, Province of British Columbia.
Bivouac.com – Canadian Mountain Encyclopaedia
Notes
Despite having the same family name, no connection between Richard
Preston Bishop and my great-grandfather Charles Henry Bishop has been
found. |
