Address: 739 Kings Road
Built: c. 1890
1912 householder: Thomas Palmer, deputy chief of police

This building was once a handsome residential dwelling, designed by noted architect John Teague and built in an Italianate style. It was the home of a prominent ship-builder and the deputy chief of police. Now stuccoed and utilized as a commercial building, it has lost most of its original features. However, the height, dimensions and hipped roof of this building hint at its age.

It is one of the few survivors of an urban redevelopment scheme in the late 1960s, when this entire area was demolished. The Rose-Blanshard scheme, named for the streets in the vicinity, caused the destruction of nearly 160 dwellings and the displacement of about 200 households. Remarkably, this building survived the devastation and has continued standing, ever since.

Before 1907, when Victoria City streets were renumbered, the civic address of this dwelling was 21 Kings Road. William Turpel, a prominent Victoria ship-builder, owned this property and lived here with his family from 1891 to 1909. The house was then occupied by the Thomas Palmer and his family. Palmer was Victoria's deputy chief of police. In 1913 the Palmers moved to a newly-built house on Emma Street, now called Balfour Avenue. Their former home at 3164 Balfour Avenue still stands.

Thomas Palmer was 48 years old and his wife Kate (née Palmer) was 43 years old when they were enumerated here in June 1911. They were born in England: he in Plumstead, Kent; she in Aldbourne, Wiltshire. Since they had the same surname, they may have been cousins. They were married in Victoria on 5 November 1890 shortly after arriving in Canada. Their children were all born in Victoria.

Their eldest daughter, Lillian, was 19 years old and working as a sales clerk; second daughter Beatrice, age 17, was a dental assistant; and the eldest son, Roy, was 15 years old. He was a paperboy for the Victoria Daily Colonist and later worked at a Victoria shipyard. At the beginning of the First World War, he enlisted in the 88th Victoria Fusiliers Regiment; lamentably, he was killed in action in Belgium in 1916.

The Palmers' younger children were Darrell (age 13), Katherine (11), Thomas (9), and Victor (6). With the exception of young Victor (who attended Burnside School), all of the Palmer children attended North Ward School. A photograph showing Lillian Palmer and her classmates at North Ward School is preserved in the Victoria City Archives.

Thomas Palmer was one of the most experienced officers to ever serve on the Victoria City Police force. At the age of twenty, Palmer joined the London Metropolitan police. He was following the steps of his father, who was a police inspector at “the Met.” A few years later, he was appointed to the colonial police force in the Straits Settlement (now Malaysia and Singapore) where he attained a senior rank. Returning to London, he worked as a police detective in Whitechapel in East London when Jack the Ripper was terrorizing the place. He immigrated to Canada and joined the City of Victoria police force in 1892. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1902 and helped to establish the detective branch of the department. In 1909 he was appointed deputy chief of police. He died in 1922 and is buried in Ross Bay cemetery.

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