William Carpenter Bompas

The collection comprises of correspondence by Bompas regarding missionary work.

William Carpenter Bompas was born on 20 January 1834 in London. After giving up a legal career with a firm of solicitors, he joined the Church of England, becoming a deacon in 1859 and a priest in 1865. In 1865, he travelled to the Mackenzie River area of northern Canada to work as a missionary and preacher for the Church Missionary Society, later serving as the first Anglican bishop of the dioceses of Athabasca (1874-884), Mackenzie River (1884-1891), and Selkirk [Yukon] (1891-1905). He devoted much time to studying northern languages and was the author of numerous translations of religious works into native dialects. Resigning as bishop of Selkirk in October 1905, he died on 9 June 1906 in Carcross, Yukon.

The correspondence is arranged chronologically.

By appointment.

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Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to Who was who, 1897-1916, Adam & Charles Black London (1920) and ' Bompas, William Carpenter' by Kerry Abel in Dictionary of Canadian Biography volume 13 edited by Ramsay Cook, University of Toronto Press Toronto (1994) and McGill University

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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