William Driscoll Gosset

W. D. Gosset
6th Surveyor General of Ceylon
In office 1855–1858
Preceded by	W. H. Simms
Succeeded by	Charles Sims
Personal details
Born	13 April 1822 Charleville, Ireland[1]
Died	19 May 1899 (aged 77)[2] Kensington, London, England

Major-General William Driscoll Gosset FRSE (13 April 1822 – 19 May 1899), also Gossett, was a British Army officer serving in the Royal Engineers.[3][4] A skilled engineer and surveyor, he did much work on the original British Ordnance Survey.

Early life

He was born in Charleville, County Cork into a prominent Anglo-Irish family of Huguenot descent, the second son of Major John Noah Gossett (1793–1870) of the Rifle Brigade[5] and his wife, Maria Margaret Driscoll (1796-1883).[6]

He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in 1840 and was deeply involved in the survey work in Britain 1840 to 1850. He was promoted captain in 1850.[7]

He was for his mapping work elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1850, subsequent to his proposal by Charles Piazzi Smyth.[8]

Ceylon

In 1855 Gossett was made 6th Surveyor General of Ceylon, succeeding W. H. Simms in this role, and holding the office until 1858. He was succeeded by Charles Sims.[9] He was active in recruiting assistants, interviewing in London; but failed to spot embezzlement by the survey's head clerk.[10]

British Columbia

Gosset then served as Colonial Treasurer of British Columbia, arriving in November 1858.[11] He clashed seriously with James Douglas, from 1860.[12] He also uncovered book-keeping issues, and recommended the dismissal of Alexander Caulfield Anderson.[13]

In the aftermath of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, coin was short in British Columbia. In 1861 Douglas sent Gosset, or the assayer Francis George Claudet, to San Francisco, for equipment to set up a local mint in New Westminster; in 1862 Gosset operated the mint.[14][15] Gosset was replaced as Treasurer in 1862.[11]

In 1873, he returned to Britain to take a more sedate role in a Science and Art Department in London. He retired in 1894.

He died on 19 May 1899 at 70 Edith Road in West Kensington in London.[16]

Family

In 1852, Gosset at Eton, Berkshire married his cousin, Helena Dorothea Gosset (b. 1830),[6] who was the daughter of Isaac Gosset (1782 – 1855) and the granddaughter of James Lind of Windsor.[17][18] They had one son Ernest A. Gossett.[19]

References

1. UK, Regimental Registers of Service, 1756-1900
2. "Deaths". Army and Navy Gazette. 27 May 1899. p. 10. Retrieved 10 February 2024.
3. J. F. Bosher (April 2010). Imperial Vancouver Island: Who Was Who, 1850-1950. Xlibris Corporation. p. 304. ISBN 978-1-4500-5963-3.
4. Ross, Victor; Trigge, Arthur St. L. (1920). A History of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, with an account of the other banks which now form part of its organization. Vol. I. Toronto: Oxford University Press. p. 463. Retrieved 9 April 2016 – via Internet Archive.
5. Thom, Adam (1875). The Upper Ten Thousand: A Biographical Handbook of All the Titled and ... George Routledge & Sons. p. 188. Retrieved 9 April 2016 – via Internet Archive.
6. "William Driscoll Gosset - theislandwiki".
7. Bulletins and Other State Intelligence. Compiled and arranged from the official documents published in the London Gazette. 1851. p. 526.
8. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
9. "History". Survey Department of Sri Lanka. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
10. Barrow, Ian Jeffrey (2003). "Surveying in Ceylon during the Nineteenth Century". Imago Mundi. 55: 81–96. ISSN 0308-5694.
11. Allan Pritchard (1 November 2011). The Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney: 1862-65. UBC Press. pp. 54–5 note 20. ISBN 978-0-7748-4257-0.
12. John Adams (2011). Old Square-Toes and His Lady: The Life of James and Amelia Douglas. TouchWood Editions. p. 133. ISBN 978-1-926971-71-1.
13. Nancy Marguerite Anderson (2011). The Pathfinder: A.C. Anderson's Journeys in the West. Heritage House Publishing Co. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-926936-82-6.
14. T. M. Scotty Gardiner (2010). In the Mind of a Mountie. Agio Publishing House. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-897435-37-3.
15. "www.royalengineers.ca, The Gosset Gold Coin Affair". Retrieved 9 April 2016.
16. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
17. Sir Bernard Burke (1871). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Harrison. p. 525.
18. Gordon Willoughby J. Gyll (1862). History of the parish of Wraysbury, Ankerwycke priory, and Magna charta island [&c.]. p. 230.
19. "William Driscoll Gosset 1822-1899 - Ancestry®". www.ancestry.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-11-01.

Government offices
Preceded by H. Chims	Surveyor General of Ceylon 1855–1858	Succeeded by Charles Sims