Biography

Also known as "Frank" or "Dib" Little, Mr. Little was a trusted friend and colliery manager for the Dunsmuir family.

Francis Deans Little was born in Hawick, Roxborough, Scotland in 1842. He emigrated to Vancouver Island as a young man in 1863 intending to join the Cariboo gold rush. Deciding that coal mining was a more stable career, he took a position with the Vancouver Island Coal Company, which had recently acquired the Nanaimo site from the Husdon's Bay Company. It was here that he met and became friends with Robert Dunsmuir.

When Robert Dunsmuir began mining his own coal at Wellington, he brought Frank Little with him as a trusted employee and Little maintained executive positions within the Dunsmuir collieries until his retirement. Little was a competent mine manager and remained a close friend of both Robert and James, despite disagreements about how to operate the mines. When James became provincial Premier and bowed to public pressure to remove Chinese miners from his collieries, Frank did not hesitate to voice his opposition¹. 

After the February 1901 disaster at the Union mine, when unions opted to place the blame on the Asian workforce, and subsequent labour unrest slowed mining activity across the Dunsmuir mines, Frank Little focused on the safety issues and designed improvements to miners safety lamps. His patented design was approved in May of 1901. 

In June of 1887, Francis Little married Lucy Anna Freeman. Lucy was the daughter of Joshua Freeman, owner and captain of the ship Glory of the Seas, which frequently transported Dunsmuir coal for the San Francisco market. She met Frank Little while accompanying her father on one of these journeys. They had three children: Helen Deans Little (1891-1894), Marguerite Jean Twigg (1888-1969), and Lucy Anna Williamson (1895-1977).

While managing the Dunsmuir Cumberland collieries, the Littles lived at "Beaufort House" in Cumberland, B.C.  After retiring, the Littles, together with Joshua and Anna Freeman, lived at "The Highlands", 1636 Rockland Avenue in Victoria, B.C..

1. Hinde, John R., (2003) When Coal Was King, p.84.

Lifetime

1842 – 1931