Piecing together a vibrant life

Turmoil: The Life & Times of Philip Hankin
by Michael Layland

Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2025
$35  /  9781771514712

Reviewed by Trevor Marc Hughes

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For someone who British Columbia historians may have seen as a background figure in the progress of the province, Philip Hankin has quickly become wedged in the through line of provincial history, thanks to recent attention via Geoff Mynett’s The Eventful Life of Philip Hankin: Worldwide Traveller and Witness to British Columbia’s Early History and now, Michael Layland’s Turmoil: The Life & Times of Philip Hankin.

Victoria-based historian Michael Layland, for whom this book is a departure in several respects, does a fine job of not only piecing together Philip Hankin’s life using the man’s sometimes sketchy written memoir, but also in associating the major figures and events of the day that have assembled the province we now call home.

Layland’s three previous history books, also published by TouchWood Editions of Victoria (In Nature’s Realm, The Land of Heart’s Delight, and A Perfect Eden), all large-format, hardcover books, are distinctly different from Turmoil, a softcover book and less ornate publication in its illustration with black-and-white maps and archive photography throughout. But in many ways this format highlights the subject matter all the more in its less decorative presentation, priming readers for a book that is going to take them into the historical record in the way of a well-told story of a life. Layland’s key source, Hankin’s memoir, by the author’s consistent admission in his writing, has gaps. But this apparently is not seen as a hindrance by the author, but an opportunity. Layland describes the events and personalities Hankin encounters, or would have encountered, with zeal and enthusiasm, taking us in to the political, historic, and economic realities of the man’s times. Layland does not shy away from a description of complex historical events of great note such as the amalgamation of two distinct colonies, Vancouver Island and mainland British Columbia, and British Columbia’s folding into the larger envelope of Canadian Confederation in 1871, something he notes was not supported by all colonists at the time.

“Philip Hankin first came to my attention during my research into the cartographic history of Vancouver Island,” writes Michael Layland. With all good rabbit holes, potential research pursuits a historian might encounter while researching another book, Layland seems to have earmarked this one for future exploration. Rather than seeing Hankin’s role in BC as subordinate to the men he worked alongside, such as Captain George Henry Richards and governor Frederick Seymour, to name a few, Layland has seen this as a boon, and the lifespan of Hankin a chance to weave a tapestry of the assembly of a colony, and eventual province. It must have been seen as an exciting bit of sleuthing to undertake. The times in which Hankin lived were extraordinary indeed, times in which the wanderlusting young man struggled in his own rabbit hole of wealth via the gold fields at Barkerville. This was an opportunity for Layland, the writer and historian, to describe how that pursuit by Hankin was an abject failure, something that nearly destroyed him. But prior to that, Hankin’s role crewing a Royal Navy ship while surveying the BC coast is something we can thank him for even today. Throughout Layland is respectful in mentioning Hankin’s valuable, if incomplete, memoir as a key source.

Layland does not shirk his role as biographer by cutting to the BC stuff: no, he covers the experiences of youth that made the man. From, in England, being “informed…that he was to have a naval career” to being guided through Hankin’s young trajectory bringing him in to contact with Daniel Pender, and even figures of worldwide import such as Dr. David Livingstone in Africa, gives the reader a sharp and well-researched perspective of the global times Hankin lived in. There are eclectic historical photography and maps to back up his words, varied and absorbing. Layland’s storytelling in this sometimes difficult yet eventful time on the high seas is engaging and illustrative. Also, there is further insight by the author as to the character of the historical figures Hankin encounters. These are not phantoms coming in and out of his life: Captain Richards, for example, is described as “a very clever man,” and demonstratively supportive of Mr. Hankin’s naval career.

The reader gets the impression that Hankin’s naval career would be great fodder in the composition of a novel by an author such as Patrick O’Brian.

From Hankin’s formative years in the Royal Navy, to his failure in Barkerville, to his unlikely becoming a civil servant as a nearly penniless young man, we then see his ascendancy to becoming, in time, acting head of government, colonial secretary, and his travels around the world in various high-ranking roles. He is a guide of sorts, taking us through BC’s formation, but also showing us the chain of command of Imperial Britain, and during the economic might generated through the Industrial Revolution. Philip Hankin would make for a good unit title in an elementary classroom’s journey through BC’s history.

Contributing to Hankin’s suitability as a historical guide, and further deserving of his status during his life, was his ability to speak several Indigenous languages as well as Chinook jargon. In one of Layland’s rediscoveries, he tracks down a dictionary, where Hankin noted the vocabulary of Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations as well as wrote a set of lists of words and phrases in Chinook. This was a man who appreciated and valued good relations with Indigenous peoples on this coast.

This assembly of terms and vocabulary Layland provides for the reader’s and future historian’s benefit. It’s listed in ‘Appendix 2: Word List’ along with photographs of the actual handwritten documents. Perhaps, among Hankin’s many accomplishments, this may be seen as one of the more important endnotes to his career: his ability to communicate and align with the Indigenous peoples of this place.

Along similar lines, Layland has assembled a timeline of Philip Hankin’s time on Vancouver Island, in historical context. It was, not to labour a point, an extraordinary time to be alive in this place and be in the thick of things. There is a thorough list of further reading in his bibliography, including the work of George Henry Richards, Daniel Pender, modern BC historians such as Jean Barman, and the memoir of Hankin himself. This book, along with the written record, may further inspire historians to tell a grand story about BC through the vibrant life of the individual.

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The latest book by Trevor Marc Hughes is The Final Spire: ‘Mystery Mountain’ Mania in the 1930s.  He wrote the story of the first ascent of Canada’s tallest peak, Capturing the Summit: Hamilton Mack Laing and the Mount Logan Expedition of 1925. He is currently the non-fiction editor for The British Columbia Review and recently reviewed books by Daphne Sleigh, Michael J. Fox and Nelle Fortenberry, John Firth, Richard Butler, Wade Davis, and David Bird (ed.). He lives in Vancouver with his wife and two sons.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster