David Thompson was born in Westminster to…

David Thompson was born in Westminster to recent Welsh migrants, David and Ann Thompson.

When Thompson was two, his father had died and the financial hardship of this occurrence resulted in his and his brother's placement in the Grey Coat Hospital, a school for the disadvantaged of Westminster.

He eventually graduated to the Grey Coat mathematical school and was introduced to basic navigation skills that will form the basis of his future career.

In 1784, at the age of fourteen, he had entered a seven-year apprenticeship with the Hudson's Bay Company.

Setting sail on May 28 of that year, he left England forever.

Arriving in Churchill (now in Manitoba), he had been put to work copying the personal papers of the governor of Fort Churchill, Samuel Hearne.

Transferred the next year to nearby York Factory, he had spent the next few years as a clerk at Cumberland House and South Branch House before arriving at Manchester House in 1787.

On December 23, 1788, Thompson had seriously fractured his leg, forcing him to spend the next two winters at Cumberland House convalescing.

It was during this time he greatly refined and expanded his mathematical, astronomical and surveying skills under the tutelage of Hudson's Bay Company surveyor Philip Turnor.

It was also during this time that he lost sight in his right eye In 1790, with his apprenticeship nearing its end, Thompson had made the unusual request of a set of surveying tools in place of the typical parting gift of fine clothes offered by the company to those completing their indenture.

Receiving both, he had then entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as a fur trader and in 1792 completed his first significant survey, mapping a route to Lake Athabasca (presently straddling the Alberta/Saskatchewan border).

In recognition of his map-making skills, the company promoted him to surveyor in 1794.

Having spent the past dozen years at various Hudson’s Bay Company posts and learned surveying, Thomspon blazes a new route to Lake Athabasca for the company in 1796.

He travels from York Factory by way of the Nelson, Burntwood, and Churchill rivers and ...