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Samuel Gill Gamble
1911–1977

If an education is the preparation for one's life work, then Samuel Gill Gamble was at the head of his class. He prepared for his role as a surveyor in the tradition of his namesake Samuel de Champlain, who educated himself by seeking out tutors and applying their lessons to his craft.

Samuel Gamble graduated from the Royal Military College in Kingston, where he studied surveying and engineering, prior to the Second World War. He subsequently served overseas during a time when military mapping was in great demand. Along with many Canadian soldiers, he was trained in aerial photography and the use of stereo plotters. Upon his return from the war, a prominent career as the head of Canada's federal mapping program awaited him.

Through his active involvement with the Canadian Institute of Surveying, Samuel was inspired to become an advocate for post-secondary studies in surveying. In 1958, the chairman of the editorial committee of the Institute asked Samuel to develop a special issue of The Canadian Surveyor on survey education. He proposed a conference, which became the "Colloquium on Survey Education," now recognized as the turning point for surveying and mapping studies in Canada.

In 1959, the Institute agreed that surveying needed to be an independent academic discipline, marking the inception of specialized mapping and surveying programs in Canadian universities.

Samuel was attributed with bringing both visibility and prestige to Canada's outstanding contributions in professional surveying abroad.

He recognized the need for an international forum of information sharing and education with organizations such as the International Society for Photogrammetry. In 1960, when Canada was granted membership to the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History, Samuel began planning international education programs. Five years later, when he was Director of the Surveys and Mapping Branch (SMB) of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (now Natural Resources Canada), he convened a seminar on cartography in Ottawa for professionals from Latin America.

Samuel was interested not only in education, but also in the safety of surveyors. He first became acquainted with the dangers of mining as a student working as an assistant mine surveyor in the Noranda district of Quebec. His recognition of the danger of rock bursts led to the First Canadian Symposium on Mining Surveying and Rock Deformation Measurements in 1969.

In Samuel's early days as Director of the SMB, he saw the need for a forum where federal and provincial government survey agencies could share matters of common interest in aerial surveying.

As aerial surveying flourished through the 1950s, Samuel, then the director of the Topographical Survey Division, played a pivotal role in fostering a relationship between the aerial surveying industry and the federal government. In 1953, his efforts were rewarded when the industry and the government co-produced the first National Topographic System maps.

During this time, Samuel also invented the Gamble Plotter, which enabled surveyors to establish the control required to map a wide belt of Canadian wilderness. His unique plotter was the first to use three-dimensional imagery in mapping, allowing for a sequence of aerial photographs to be taken kilometres apart, then plotted and viewed through one single scale.

Samuel launched the revolutionary automatic mapping operation, helping to establish Canada as a world leader in the field of surveying. This operation allowed cartographers to scan maps and separate layers of information to accurately and automatically build large- or small-scale maps.

Samuel's work in the world of surveying and mapping resulted in numerous advancements in the SMB. For Samuel, the Branch was truly a "family he had fathered and guided…for nearly fifteen years." It was through his direction and dedication that the Branch became a "nucleus of expertise in legal, geodetic, topographical, hydrographic and cartographic areas."

• 1944 — Assistant Director of Surveys, First Canadian Army
• 1949 — Chief Topographic Engineer, Surveys and Mapping Branch
• 1958 — Director of the Surveys and Mapping Branch
  President, Canadian Institute of Surveying
• 1963 — Chairman, National Advisory Committee on Cadastral Surveys and Mapping
• 1964 — Chairman, Interdepartmental Committee on Air Surveys
• 1967 — Chairman, Interdepartmental Committee on Aeronautical Charting
• 1970 — (Honorary) Doctor of Science, University of New Brunswick
• 1972 — Congress Director, 12th Congress, International Society of Photogrammetry, Ottawa
  (Honorary) Doctor of Geodetic Science, Université Laval
• 1972–1976 — President, International Society for Photogrammetry
  Assistant Deputy Minister (Administration), Department of Energy, Mines and Resources

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