Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians (1890)
Pimbury, Edwin (Nanaimo), son of the late Samuel Cosburn Pimbury, was born at Hyde, near Michinhampton, Gloucestershire, England, in 1834. Educated at Michinhampton, and at the age of fifteen years lef school and was apprenticed to the drug business serving his apprenticeship with John Walker, of Tilbury. After the required five years had been finished he entered into negotiations for the purchase of a business, but not coming to terms he determined to go abroad. He accordingly left England and in the autumn of 1855 he landed at Portland, Maine. From there he went to Wisconsin and for a time was in the drug business in Portage City.
In 1856 the great financial crash came and business flattened out. Mr. Pimbury remained during that winter in Wisconsin and in the following spring he went to California with the intention of going into vine culture. He found on his arrival that the country which had been represented to him as a paradise, was an arid waste. He was not therefore encouraged to attempt this business.
He was attracted by the gold mining in Arizona and with his brother, who is now farming in Cowichan district, he went to the Colorado river, where he remained for some time searching withoug much success for the precious metal. From there he went to the Pino Alta Mines, situated east of Tuscon, but he met with no better fortune there. Hen then heard of the immense riches of Cariboo and at once left, in company with his brother, for British Columbia.
On arriving in this country, however, he found matters different from what he had been led to expect. He found that not only were the mines difficult of access but they were very expensive to work. He went up the country some distance but meeting a large number of disappointed men who were returning he went back to Victoria, where in 1863 he met two of his brothers. The four brothers went farming at Cedar Hill, near Victoria, where they remained for about twelve months. At the end of this time Mr. Pimbury took a position in Mr. Langley's drug business in Victoria, while his three brothers purchased a farm in Cowichan. Mr. Pimbury remained for eleven years with Mr. Langley, and then left to join his brothers in the management of their farm. He was elected at this time as representative of Cowichan in the local Legislature and was again elected in 1878.
In the meantime he had established a drug, book and stationery business in Nanaimo, and as his private affairs demanded all his time he refused to stand for the Legislature in 1882. His business steadily increased and before long he put up the handsome new structure which he at present occupies. He has recently taken a partner into his business in the person of Mr. Earnest McGregor Van Houton.
Mr. Pimbury is interested in many of the enterprises of
Nanaimo and is a director of the Water Works Company. He is a Justice of the Peace
for the Province, a member of the Ancient Order of Foresters and an Episcopalian in religion.
In Dominion politics he is a Liberal-Conservative.
[Dictionary, pp. 269-270].
Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians. With a Historical Sketch. By J.B. Kerr (Vancouver, B.C.: Kerr & Begg, 1890).