(1722 - 1824)
Colonial official and hydrographer Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres was born to a Huguenot family. He was educated in Basel but trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1756 he became a Lieutenant in the Royal Americans and left for North America. He served at the siege of Louisbourg (1758), in campaigns of 1759 and 1760, worked on defences at Halifax (1761) and surveyed the coast of Nova Scotia (1764-73). In 1774 he returned to England. His drawings were published as ‘The Atlantic Neptune’ (1774-84). In 1778 he published ‘Nautical Remarks on the Coasts and Harbours of Nova Scotia’. He acquired land in Canada and was promoted to Colonel in 1798, and appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Prince Edward Island at 82. He died aged 102.
