Mervin Vavasour
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Mervin Vavasour (1821 - March 27, 1866) was a member of the Royal Engineers.
[edit] Oregon Mission
In 1845-46, Lieutenant Vavasour, accompanied by Lt. Henry James Warre, was dispatched on a mission to evaluate the logistics of a military campaign in the Oregon Country. This was done in response to the stated policy of United States President James K. Polk to expand into and control those territories along the west coast, much of which Great Britain contested as belonging to them. Vavasour and Warre travelled in the guise of civilians through territory controlled by the Hudson's Bay Company, confidentially evaluating the strategic potency of both the land and the HBC's facilities. This information made its way back to London in 1846.
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| Fort Victoria Plan | Fort Edmonton Plan |
Fortunately for Britain, a war over Oregon was averted by diplomacy. Several factors suggested that the British Army may have been in an untenable position in the region, should they be deployed for a conflict: Vavasour's poor evaluation of the readiness of the HBC facilities for military uses, the ease with which Americans were already able to cross into British territory, and the obstacle posed by the Rocky Mountains to supply lines.
[edit] Legacy
Vavasour published his notes and the images drawn by Warre in Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory (1849). From this comes some of the earliest European artistic renderings of the Rocky Mountains courtesy of Warre, and also valuable records such as an 1846 plan diagram of Fort Edmonton to scale. This plan influenced the reconstruction of the Fort in the 1960s. There is also a Mount Vavasour in Alberta, Canada, which was named for Vavasour in 1918; it is south of Mount Warre.
