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The island known as Fisgard is a stone\u2019s 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\u2019s 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. \n\n\n\nFisgard Light Station. Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont.\n\n\n\nThe 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\u2019s West Coast. \n\n\n\nFort Rodd Hill, adjacent to Fisgard Light Station. photo by Jeremy D'Entremont.\n\n\n\nInside Fisgard Lighthouse. The spiral stairway was created in San Francisco.\n\n\n\nShannon King\n\n\n\nThe 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\u2019s dwelling was converted into a museum. Shannon King is the curator for the Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Site.