William Fraser Tolmie was born in Inverness on February 3rd 1812, I have the same surname but he isn’t an ancestor, as far as I am aware.
William’s mother died when he was three and he spent some years under the “irksome and capricious authority” of an aunt. He was educated at Inverness Academy and Perth Grammar School. An uncle encouraged his interest in medicine and is said to have financed his studies at the medical school of the University of Glasgow for two years, 1829–31. Although almost invariably referred to as Dr Tolmie, he was not an md: during these two years he worked for credits toward a diploma as licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, a body independent of the university. Tolmie did well in his studies, won prizes in chemistry and French, and received his diploma in the spring of 1831. He had hoped to study in Paris, but a near-fatal illness prevented him. When he recovered, he served from February to May 1832 as clerk in an emergency cholera hospital organized in Glasgow to cope with the epidemic then raging.
In the summer of 1832 the Hudson Bay Company was looking for two medical officer, William and another, Dr Meredith Gairdner signed that September a five-year contract to serve in the dual capacity of clerk and surgeon. As a clerk he would receive an annual salary rising from £20 to £50, and as a surgeon £100 per annum.
The ship arrived at Fort Vancouver in the spring of 1833. In his journal, he wrote about his accommodations at the fort, recording that the doctor’s office had “a very excellent supply of surgical instruments.” Just days after his arrival, Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin was stricken by the so-called “intermittent fever” (malaria). Tolmie treated him by him, a common practice in 19th century medicine. Like most doctors at the time, Tolmie was also a dedicated naturalist, and many plant and animal specimens as he travelled through the Pacific Northwest. He sent at least two collections of Northwest bird and animal specimens to Scotland - one to a museum in his hometown, Inverness, and one to fellow naturalist John Scouler. After Fort Vancouver, Tolmie went on to serve at several other Hudson’s Bay Company posts in the Pacific Northwest.
William Tolmie enjoyed a good relationship with Native Americans, and in one case supported Chief Leschi of the Nisqually Tribe who was was charged with murder during the Puget Sound War, oor William measured distances, and determined it was impossible for Leschi to have made the trip to the murder site in the time required. The local Military refused to carry out the sentence as Leschi would not have been guilty as the tribe and the government were at war at the time.
Tolmie petitioned the Governor for Clemency, but the sentence was upheld. . Leschi was executed in 1858. Later, the trial was judged to have been unlawfully conducted, the execution wrong, and Leschi innocent.
He died at age 74 in Victoria, Canada and Tolmie State Park Washington, is named after him. Tolmie was the first European to explore the Puyallup River valley and Mount Rainier in what is now Washington Tolmie Peak is named in his honour, as is Tolmie Street in Vancouver. Plants bearing his name include Tolmie’s star-tulip (Calochortus tolmiei) and Tolmie’s onion (Allium tolmiei). The scientific name of MacGillivray’s warbler is also named for him: Oporornis Tolmiei.