Bompas, William Carpenter

First Bishop of Athabasca; First Bishop of Mackenzie River; First Bishop of Selkirk (now Yukon).

WIlliam Carpenter Bompas was born in 1834 in London, England. Initially, he started down a path towards a career in law, but switched to a religious path later. Born to the Baptist faith, he was confirmed in the Anglican church, and then was ordained deacon in 1859. He was the curate of Parish Church Sutton-in-the-Marsh in Lincolnshire from 1859 - 1863, became curate of Church of the Holy Trinity in Louth in 1863, then curate of Alford, Lincholnshire in 1864. In 1865, he answered a call for missionary to Rupert's Land from the Church Missionary Society, and was ordained priest in. He then became the priest in charge of the Missionary circuit of the Yukon from 1866 to 1874. He was nominated Bishop of Athabasca, newly created out of the division of Rupert's Land, a post he was not initially pleased with; but he was persuaded to accept by his peers and was consecrated on May 3, 1874. He married Charlotte Selina Cox in that same year, and continued missionary work. He created plans for model farms at Fort Dunvegan and Fort Vermilion, and established the Irene Training school at Fort Vermilion in 1880. Another division of the diocese saw him translated the Missionary See of Mackenzie River in 1884, which was divided again in 1891, at which point Bompas became Bishop of Selkirk (now Yukon). He corresponded regularly with John Christian Schultz, bringing awareness of Northern Canada to the rest of the country. He also studied three languages from the local First Nations communties - Slavey, Beaver, and Tukudh. This allowed him to translate multiple religious works. He resigned in 1905, and passed away in 1906 in Carcross, Yukon.