Background
Patrick was born in South Durham, Quebec, in 1857.
Patrick was born in South Durham, Quebec, in 1857.
Patrick came up with the idea to put numbers on ice hockey players" uniforms. He was one of 10 children born to Irish immigrants Thomas and Lucinda Patrick. In 1881, Patrick moved to Drummondville and became a clerk at a general store.
They had eight children, and the two oldest, Lester and Frank, were eventually elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
They sold the store five years later, and Patrick used the money to form a lumber company. In 1907, he started Patrick Lumber Company in Nelson, British Columbia.
In 1911, he sold the company for $440,000. Lester and Frank wanted to start a new ice hockey league, and the money was used to build artificial ice rinks for the league in Vancouver and Victoria.
They were the first artificial ice rinks in Canada.
Patrick and his family moved to Victoria in 1912, when the new league, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, began play. The PCHA continued to operate until 1924. In his later years, Patrick kept active in the community in Victoria and was an alderman.
He died in Vancouver in 1941.
In 1998, he was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame.