Neville Frederick Townsend (6C11)

Date of Birth: 7 Jul 1863
Date of Death: 23 Dec 1941
Generation: 7th
Residence: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Father: Vice Admiral Sir Samuel Philip Townsend [6C01]
Mother: Bridges, Emma Maria
Spouse:
  1. Cambie, Helen Maude
Issue:
  1. Philip Cambie [6C26]
See Also: Table VIC ; Scrapbook ; Lineage ; Ancestors' Tree ; Descendents' Tree

Notes for Neville Frederick Townsend

Neville was born in Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland.

Married 21 October 1908. Helen Maude Cambie (1) was the second daughter of HJ Cambie of Nenagh, Co Tipperary. They met when Helen came to visit a friend at the time that Neville was working in Rossland, BC (see below).

Neville was educated at Eastman's Naval School (2), Southsea, Hampshire, after which he studied at the United Services College at Westward Ho, North Devon. Later he attended Downton Agricultural College, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Unlike his distinguished father, he never joined the Royal Navy and instead emigrated to Canada in 1886.

Following a spell working on a prize stock farm near London, Ontario, Neville farmed in Illinois, Kansas and Alberta. Finally he settled in Victoria, British Columbia, and began working on surveys. He was articled to a Mr J.H.Gray and later his articles were transferred to Mr C.E.Perry. Neville obtained his PLS commission in April 1895 and established his own practice at Rossland. In 1906 he was appointed surveyor for the Le Roi mine in Rossland.

Neville was a member of the Board of Management of BC Land Surveyors for the years 1913, 1915, and 1916, and President for the years 1917 and 1918. He was also a member of the Historical and Biographical Committee from 1929 to the time of his death.

Oral tradition in the family records that Neville was very hard of hearing and did not hear the car that hit and killed him in Vancouver.

(1) Helen was born on 30 December 1872 in Quebec.

(2) Eastman's Royal Naval Academy was founded by Thomas Eastman in 1851 and the school continued in existence until about 1940. His son, Thomas Eastman junior, was a teacher there aged 21 in 1872 but in 1876 he took up a teaching position at Stubbington House School, Fareham, Hants - otherwise known as Foster's Naval Academy and remained there until 1881.

Other ‘Townsend’ Canadian émigrés - Denotes with descendants.

Richard Townsend [335], John Townsend [338](?), Frederick Charles Somerville Townsend [362] All Table IIIB entries, John Sealy Ernest Somerville Townsend [364], Desmond Walter Townshend [5B49], Herbert Oliver Townshend [5D37], David William Townshend [5D55].