Adopted in the 16th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1919, as labelled on BC-Alberta boundary map #17, 1917.

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff.

"Named after the late Lord Rhondda, British food controller."

Source: 16th Report of the Geographic Board of Canada, 31 March 1919 (supplement to the Annual Report of the Dept of the Interior, 1919, Ottawa)

Named in 1917 by interprovincial boundary surveyors after David Alfred Thomas, First Baron Rhondda, the Welsh industrialist and politician who, as Minister of Food Control, had introduced an effective food rationing system in Britain during the latter years of the Great War. Before the war Thomas had acquired a fortune as owner of multiple Welsh coal interests including the Cambrian Collieries combine; he visited Canada in 1915 to acquire tracts of coal-bearing land in the Chetwynd area of the Peace River District, built the steamboat D.A.Thomas (which plied the Peace River until 1929), and was returning to the UK aboard RMS Lusitania when she was torpedoed by a German U-boat 7 May 1915. Thomas was made Baron Rhondda in 1916 in conjuction with his appointment as emissary to the United States; appointed Minister of Food Control June 1917 and was serving in that capacity when he was given the title Viscount Rhondda in 1918, shortly before his death in July that year.

Source: BC place name cards & correspondence, and/or research by BC Chief Geographer & Geographical Names Office staff.