Biography
He was the Chief Engineer of the Department of Marine & Fisheries and General Superintendent of Lighthouses of the Canadian Government. Built by the famous and eccentric Chief Engineer Colonel W.P. Anderson the Triangle Island Light was a disaster in the pursuit of architectural triumph over environmental elements. Positioned on a tiny speck 42 miles off the northern end of Vancouver Island Anderson broke his own cardinal rule of positioning lights: "Never build more than 150 feet above sea level. At the top of an incredible 680 foot cliff, accessible only by a tramway, the light could, on a clear night, be seen fifty miles out to sea. But that was the catch. Many nights on the island a fog bank rolls in below obscuring the light and making it totally useless. After an inspection trip on the Quadra in 1898 he named an island and a narrows after his daughter Dorothy.
Military Service
He retired from command of the 43rd Battalion Ottawa and Carleton Rifles in 1892.
Named Features
Anderson Point (Devastation Channel) (by Captain Walbran 1898)
References
Walbran, Captain John T. (1909)
