Cridge Family

Cridge Family Gravesite - Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria BC. Photo by Rachel Perkins

Edward Cridge was born Dec. 17, 1817, in Devonshire, England.  After graduating from Cambridge University, he became vicar at Christ Church, in the parish of West Ham near London.  When he learned the Hudson’s Bay Company was seeking a chaplain for the fort on Southern Vancouver Island, he applied for the job and was accepted.  He proposed to parishoner Mary Winmill who agreed to marry him and join him in this great adventure. (Mary Winmill was born in Essex, England on April 15, 1827.)

On September 20, 1854, they sailed from Gravesend aboard the Marquis of Bute.  Over six months later, in March of 1855, after a journey around South America and via the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), they were welcomed to the fort by Governor James Douglas.

On August 12, 1856, he said the prayers at the inaugural meeting of the first meeting of the elected House of Assembly, held in a small room at the fort and was named Clerk of the Assembly.

Edward and Mary had nine children, four of whom died in the black measles epidemic of 1865.  One of them was Ellen, born March 18, 1867.

Ellen married Thomas Herbert Laundy, on Sept. 17, 1891. (He was with the Bank of British Columbia, subsequently the Bank of Commerce, at the branch at Fort and Government streets)

Ellen and Herbert had six children, the youngest of whom were twins Edward and Arthur Laundy (my father).

Arthur married Dorothy Kennedy in 1939.  They had two children; myself, David Arthur Laundy, born on January 16, 1942 and my younger brother, Robert Lynn Laundy, born on June 22, 1945.

Submitted by Dave Laundy (wife Janet)

descendant of Edward and Mary Cridge

(chaplain to Fort Victoria)