Fonds PR-0191 - E.O.S. Scholefield fonds

Ethelbert Olaf Stuart (E.O.S) Scholefield was born in St. Wilfrid’s Ryde on the Isle of Wright on May 31, 1875. He came with his family to British Columbia in 1887. His father, Rev. Stuart Clement Scholefield, an Anglican clergyman, first settled his family in New Westminster before taking the position as Rector of St. Paul’s Parish at Esquimalt. Because of his father’s responsibilities, Scholefield attended private schools in New Westminster and Victoria before he graduated from Victoria High School.

Scholefield began his professional career as a government employee in 1894 when he acquired a job as a legislative page, known officially as a “Library Messenger,” in the Provincial Assembly. He began working in the Legislative Library in 1898, remaining there until December 29, 1910 when Provincial Secretary H.E. Young formally appointed him to the full-time, permanent position of Provincial Archivist. Scholefield became the first Provincial Archivist of British Columbia to hold the position as a discrete, permanent position in the provincial government. Scholefield would remain Provincial Archivist until his death in 1919.