Adopted 3 December 1946 on Chart #3587, as labelled on British Admiralty Chart #581, 1867 et seq, and on BC Lands' map 2C, 1919 et seq.

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

Named by Capt. Richards, RN, after H.M. gunboat Forward, built in England in 1854, and arrived in Esquimalt 1860 in company with H.M.S. Grappler and H.M.S. Termagant.

Source: Walbran, John T; "British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: Their Origin and History"; published for the Geographic Board of Canada, Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)

Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Forward was the quintessential west coast Royal Navy (RN) gunboat, especially designed for patrolling inshore waters and imposing law and order. Like its sister ship, Her Majesty's Ship (HMS) Grappler, it was a tiny 60-hp steam vessel of 211 tonnes, with two guns and a crew of 36. Built in 1855, it arrived at Esquimalt in 1860 and worked on the coast until 1869, attending to many emergencies and disturbances. In 1860, for instance, under control of Lieutenant Charles Robson, the Forward assisted the disabled Florencia off Vancouver Island's west coast and rescued the shipwrecked crew of the Consort, spending so long en route that it was feared, in Victoria, that the gunboat had been lost. In 1861 it attacked a camp of renegade Haida near Cape Mudge, made arrests and recovered property stolen from vessels and communities on the south coast. Under Lieutenant Horace Lascelles, in 1863, the Forward destroyed a Lamalcha village on Kuper Island while searching for the murderers of a Gulf Island family. The next Commander, Lieutenant D'Arcy Denny, took it 20km up the uncharted Nass River in 1866 to "show the flag". Lieutenant Thomas Larcom was the gunboat's final Royal Navy Commander; after hist stint it was auctioned off for $7,000 to the Mexican navy and shortly afterwards seized by rebels and burned.

Source: Scott, Andrew; "The Encyclopedia of Raincoast Place Names"; Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, 2009, page 206.