William Kingsford (23 December 1819 – 29 September 1898) was an English-born Canadian historian and civil engineer. He is best known for his History of Canada in 10 volumes (1887–1898), which was widely read by both the upper middle class and Anglophone teachers.
Born in London, England, Kingsford traveled to Canada, where he served in the army before engaging in surveying work. He was a self-taught historian, and one of the first to use the archives being gathered in Ottawa. He was also a civil engineer, working across North America to install railways such as the Hudson River Railroad. His work led him to Panama, where he assisted in construction of the Panama Canal Railway. Kingsford served a brief term as the chief engineer of Toronto, Canada.
Kingsford believed that the Conquest of New France guaranteed victory for British constitutional liberty and that it ensured material progress. He assumed the assimilation of French Canadians into a superior British culture was inevitable and desirable, for he envisioned Canada as one nation with one anglophone population.
Early life
Born on 23 December 1819 in the parish of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, he was the son of William and Elizabeth Kingsford of Lad Lane. Educated at Nicholas Wanostrocht's school in Camberwell, he was articled at an early age to an architect. He then enlisted in the 1st Dragoon Guards, aged 16. He went with his regiment to Canada in 1837, became sergeant, and in 1840, through the influence of his friends at home, obtained his discharge, despite an offer by Sir George Cathcart, colonel of the regiment, to procure a commission for him.
Civil engineer
Entering the office of the city surveyor of Montreal in 1841, Kingford qualified in due course as civil engineer, and obtained the position of deputy city surveyor, a post which he held for three years. He resigned to begin the publication of the Montreal Times, in company with Murdo McIver. Two years later he entered the public works department, and among other undertakings made a new survey of the Lachine Canal.