John Keast Lord

Born in England in 1818, he trained as a veterinarian at the Royal Veterinary College in London and received his diploma in 1844. Sources agree that his life soon took a restless turn: he reportedly worked his way through a series of hard-to-document adventures, including a whaling voyage, trapping, and service in the Crimean War, before finding his most important role as a naturalist.

From 1858 to 1862, he served with the British North American Boundary Commission as it surveyed the forty-ninth parallel, spending time on Vancouver Island and in British Columbia. During that work he sent important animal collections to the British Museum and later drew on his experiences for The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia (1866), a two-volume work that helped introduce many readers to the wildlife and landscapes of the region.

Remembered as a veterinarian, naturalist, journalist, and author, he wrote with the energy of someone who had truly been there. He died at Brighton, England, on December 9, 1872.