The reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken ([Recollections of the pioneers of British Columbia)

## Born and brought up in Whitechapel, John Sebastian Helmcken worked his way through apprenticeships as a chemist and a medical pupil before gaining admission to Guy's Hospital to complete his training. The accounts he gives of working class family life and of the great economic and social disadvantages he had to confront in order to become a doctor make this volume of memoirs not only a valuable historical document, but also an autobiography with considerable human interest. "Filled with vivid and often humorous descriptions of the personalities and everyday life of Victoria and British Columbia from the 1850s to the 1870s." Dust jacket A unique account of the way social and economic conditions were actually felt and experienced in B.C. at the time of Confederation.