W. E. (William Eppes) Cormack

Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland, in 1796 and educated in Scotland, William Eppes Cormack became known as an explorer, author, agriculturalist, and philanthropist. He is especially remembered for his 1822 trek across Newfoundland’s interior, a journey that helped broaden European knowledge of the island’s geography.

Cormack is also closely linked with efforts to document what could still be learned about the Beothuk people. His writings and collecting work made him an important, if complicated, figure in the historical record of Newfoundland, and later accounts of the island’s past have often returned to his observations.

His life did not follow a single path. He was involved in agricultural projects and other ventures, and he spent his later years in British Columbia, where he died in New Westminster in 1868. Today he is remembered as one of the notable early figures in Newfoundland history.