The island known as Fisgard is a stone’s throw offshore at the west side of the entrance to British Columbia’s Esquimalt Harbor. The island was named for a British naval frigate, with the name’s origins reaching back to Fishguard, a coastal town in Wales. The British Royal Navy began using Esquimalt Harbor as a base for its operations in Pacific Canada in 1848.

The lighthouse at Fisgard went into service on November 16, 1860. The 48-foot conical brick tower was surmounted by an iron lantern holding a fourth-order Fresnel lens that rotated on a mercury bed. The first keeper was George Davies, a native of Wales. He was the first full-time lighthouse keeper on Canada’s West Coast.

The light was automated in early 1929, and Fisgard ceased being an island in 1951 with the creation of a causeway from Fort Rodd Hill. Parks Canada completed much renovation of the station in the 1970s and 1980s, including the reconstruction of a boathouse and storehouse, and the keeper’s dwelling was converted into a museum. Shannon King is the curator for the Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site.