VICTORIA -- A historic gravesite in Victoria's Ross Bay cemetery has been vandalized.

The grave of Sir James Douglas was targeted by vandals who covered it with lewd graffiti overnight Wednesday.

City officials say the graffiti was discovered on the grave marker, a tree and a nearby office building, early Thursday morning.

RossBay

City crews responded promptly and removed the graffiti at a cost of a "couple hundred" dollars, according to City of Victoria spokesperson Sheldon Johnson.

The damage was photographed and posted online by a member of the Old Cemeteries Society Facebook group, who called it "a senseless, cowardly act of vandalism."

Victoria police were not called to investigate.

James Douglas was a Hudson's Bay Company fur trader and the first Governor of the Colony of British Columbia.

Ross Bay