Barry Morton Gough is a Canadian global maritime and naval historian, professor, and author.
Education Gough attended Victoria High School and graduated from Victoria College in 1957, the predecessor of the University of Victoria.Gough was one of the Lansdowne-era students at Victoria College (VC '57) and is listed among its notable alumni; retrieved 2020-01-16 at https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/history/alumni/student-success/index.php/. Edward B. Harvey, ed., The Lansdowne Era: Victoria College 1946–1963, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008. Retrieved 2020-01-16 at https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7znzc/. He completed his bachelor's degree at the University of British Columbia and master's degree at the University of Montana. He later earned his PhD at King's College London. In 1971, his doctoral research on sea power and geopolitics across the Pacific Rim became the inaugural publication of the University of British Columbia Press: The Royal Navy and the Northwest Coast of North America, 1810–1914: A Study of British Maritime Ascendancy. ; retrieved 2011-02-25. An expanded edition was subsequently published by Heritage House under the title Britannia's Navy on the West Coast of North America, 1812–1914.
Gough received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of London in 1991 for his contribution to Imperial and Commonwealth history.International Who's Who 2004, entry at "Gough, Barry Morton"; Europa Publications/Routledge, p. 634; retrieved 2011-02-02. In June 2021, the University of Victoria conferred upon him an Honorary Doctor of Laws.Spring 2021 Honorary Degree Recipients, University of Victoria, retrieved 7 June 2021 at https://www.uvic.ca/ceremonies/convocation/traditions/honoraries/2021-hdrs/2021-honorary-degree-recipients.php/
Teaching and consulting Gough returned to Victoria High School as teaching staff, before becoming a Lecturer at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, and co-director of the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies. He worked in the Department of History at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, Ontario, from 1972 to 2004. Gough was appointed Associate Professor before being promoted to Professor, later earning the title University Research Professor.Rose Simone, "Naval historian named research prof of the year," The Record (Kitchener, Ont.), 28 Oct 1994, p. B-4. He was the founding coordinator of Canadian Studies at Laurier and served as coordinator of Interdisciplinary Studies and Assistant Dean of Arts. The material in a series of public lectures he organized was published with his introduction as In Search of the Visible Past.Barry Gough, In Search of the Visible Past: History Lectures at Wilfrid Laurier University 1973–1974. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1975. . Retrieved 2018-05-12 at https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/I/In-Search-of-the-Visible-Past/.
In 1985, Gough was asked to prepare a historical legal claims dossier for the Tribal Council of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth in the Meares Island case (Moses Martin et al. v H.M. the Queen).Discussed in Gough, "Possessing Meares Island," Journal of Canadian Studies, 1 July 1998 (Trent University, Peterborough, Ont.); retrieved 2011-02-21 ; as specified in keynote intro, B.C. Studies Conference, New Westminster, B.C., 2–4 May 2013; retrieved 2013-05-01 here]. In 2005, he was asked to prepare materials on the Alaska inland waters case, Alaska v the United States of America (2005), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Gough's Great Lakes shipwreck research led to involvement with HMCS Haida as the ship's official historian. Gough was advisory editor to Macmillan Publishing for World Explorers and Discoverers (1992)Bohlander, Richard E., ed., World Explorers and Discoverers (New York: Macmillan, 1992); bibliography and reading list online ; retrieved 2011-02-24. and was editor-in-chief of the magazine American Neptune based at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts (1997–2003).; retrieved 2011-02-23
At his retirement from Wilfrid Laurier University after 33 years, Gough was appointed Professor Emeritus.Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ont., Barry Gough fonds , retrieved 2011-02-09; Wilfrid Laurier University Press, author listings, retrieved 2018-05-11.
Affiliations and affinities Gough was a former president of the British Columbia Historical Federation and was later named BCHF honorary president. He worked with the Vancouver Maritime Museum as curator for the Vancouver 125 exhibition, "Captain George Vancouver" (2011), and was an advisor to the Maritime Museum of BC, Victoria. Continuing as a historical consultant to CFB Naval and Military Museum, Esquimalt, B.C., in 2017, he was curator of the Canada 150 Public History Project, "The Royal Canadian Navy and the Pacific Gateway to Wider Seas." A corresponding video production was released the following year as Our Seas Our Coasts Our Navy.CFB Esquimalt: Marpac Imaging, 2018.
Awards and medals Barry Gough and his writings have received honours, awards, and prizes in the United States, the U.K., Spain, and Canada.
In July 2026, he was given the George Woodcock Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement in British Columbia in recognition of his lifetime of influential historical scholarship, writing, and dedication to the province's heritage. BC Bookworld announcement re event 24 July 2026, Vancouver Public Library Central, Vancouver, B.C.
The British Maritime Foundation announced in November 2015 that Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace before Armageddon won the Mountbatten Literary Award 2015 for best literary contribution to the understanding of the importance of the seas."Barry Gough wins the Mountbatten Maritime Award for Pax Britannica #MMA2015," Maritime Foundation @BMCF_UK 12 Nov 2015; Richard Watts, "Our History: When Britannia ruled the waves," Times Colonist, 9 Jan 2016, retrieved 2016-01-11 here. He received the Robert Gray Medal from The Washington State Historical Society for lifetime achievement in September 2016. The Naval Association of Canada presented him with the 2019 Admirals' Medal in recognition of lifetime achievement as a global maritime and naval historian "through some thirty major volumes and numerous articles, [...] a body of work which has earned him international acclaim as a Canadian scholar of the highest order."Naval Association of Canada, retrieved 16 June 2022 at https://www.navalassoc.ca/the-admirals-medal/2019-admirals-medal-recipient-dr-barry-gough/; "Former Victoria teacher, longtime maritime historian earns 35th Admiral's Medal", Victoria News 31 May 2022, retrieved 1 June 2022 at https://www.vicnews.com/community/former-victoria-teacher-longtime-maritime-historian-earns-35th-admirals-medal/. A life member of the Society for the History of Discoveries, Gough was in November 2019 named a Fellow of the Society for his publications in Canadian and British imperial and naval history, his record of teaching and mentoring students, particularly at Wilfrid Laurier University and for contributions to the scholarly community of imperial, international and maritime historians.Lauren Beck, citation, 60th AGM of the Society for the History of Discoveries, Gainesville, FL., 15 November 2019; retrieved 2019-12-25 at https://discoveryhistory.org/project/barry-gough/ .
Gough has received the Psi Upsilon Distinguished Service Alumnus Award, the Wilfrid Laurier University Alumni Hoffmann-Little Award for Outstanding Teaching,Psi Upsilon Distinguished Service Alumnus Award, discussed online ; retrieved 2011-01-30the Hoffmann-Little Award for Outstanding Teaching; retrieved 2011-01-30. and the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Victoria.Distinguished Alumni Awards 2019: criteria, retrieved 2020-01-23 at https://www.uvic.ca/alumni/impact/home/awards/distinguished/index.php/;citation, retrieved 020-01-23 at https://www.uvic.ca/alumni/assets/docs/alumni-week/daa-program-booklet-final.pdf/ . BC Historical Federation notice retrieved 2019-01-16 at https://www.bchistory.ca/barry-gough-selected-as-a-distinguished-alumni-of-uvic/ . For civic contributions in Ontario and British Columbia, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal. In November 2014, he received the Maritime Museum of B.C.'s 2014 SS Beaver Medal for Maritime Excellence.Katherine Dedyna, "Maritime historian honoured for his work," Times Colonist, 27 Nov 2014, A-6; retrieved 2014-11-27 at http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/victoria-maritime-historian-honoured-for-his-work-1.1623620#sthash.8BvOXHe6.dpuf/."SS Beaver medals awarded to Vancouver-based recipients," BC Shipping News, 29 Oct 2014, retrieved 2014-11-26 at .
Prizes include medals, awards, and honourable mentions from multiple organisations including the North American Society for Oceanic History.The North American Society for Oceanic History (NASOH) annual John Lyman Book Award in 2007 for Fortune's a River (Harbour Publishing) in category "Canadian Naval and Maritime History"; Through Water, Ice and Fire (Dundurn Press) received a 2006 Honourable Mention in category "Canadian Naval and Maritime History"; and Fur Traders from New England (Arthur H. Clark Co.) as 1997 winner in "Primary Source Materials, Reference Works, and Guide Books"; discussion of awards retrieved 2011-02-19 here. The Keith Matthews Award recognizes publications in the field of nautical research. When Possessing Meares Island won it in 2022, it was the fourth time Gough's books had been given the award.CNRS awards listings, retrieved 28 August 2022 at https://www.cnrs-scrn.org/books_and_awards/matthews_e.html#winners.
Published works Gough's dissertation, the basis of his first book, argued that British Columbia owed its existence to British sea power and that the Hudson's Bay Company was not the only agent in the commercial and political project of creating British Columbia's boundaries.Barry Gough, "From British Columbia to Pax Britannica and Return," British Columbia History 46:2 (Summer 2015), p.15. Retrieved 2019-11-28 at https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bch/items/1.0380632#p2z-6r0f:gough/. "I've always felt the seas were blindsided in the writing of Canadian history, and I have made it my particular calling to turn that around," Gough said in 1994.Rose Simone, "Naval historian named research prof of the year," The Record (Kitchener, Ont.), 28 Oct 1994, B-4. The 1997 account of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's overland explorations to the Arctic and Pacific coasts, First Across the Continent, has been called a central contribution to the study of North American exploration in the 18th and 19th centuries.Jamie Morton, on First Across the Continent: retrieved 2011-02-27 here. The Elusive Mr. Pond, is a study of the soldier, fur trader, and explorer Peter Pond historically important in pushing northwest into the Mackenzie River basin and establishing the North West Company.
Pax Britannica in 2014 explored British naval reach and the guarding of imperial commerce during the post-Napoleonic century.Matthew S. Seligmann, "Pax Britannica: Ruling the Waves and Keeping the Peace Before Armageddon," Diplomacy & Statecraft, 26:3, 552–553; retrieved 2016-02-18 here; Howard J. Fuller, "Review: Pax Britannica," The International Journal of Maritime History 27(3) (August 2015), 598–599; retrieved 2016-02-18 here.Wilfrid Laurier University, "Laurier Professor Emeritus Barry Gough receives acclaim for history book on the British Royal Navy," retrieved 2015-12-06 here and reposted here.