Adopted 31 March 1924 in the 18th Report as labelled on British Admiralty Chart #2430, 1868, "Vancouver Island to Cordova Bay;" BC Land's Map #1A, 1912, "British Columbia;" and BC Land's Map #2F, 1927, "Queen Charlotte Islands."

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

Rear Adm Fairfax Moresby (1786-1877) was cdr-in-chief of the Pacific Station, 1850-53, with HMS Portland as his flagship. He entered the RN in 1799 and was promoted to capt in 1814. Moresby spent a number of years on the African coast, in command of the frigate Menai, doing survey work and vigorously suppressing the slave trade. He was made a rear adm in 1849, knighted in 1855 and achieved the highest rank in the RN, adm of the fleet, in 1870. The northern Moresby – BC’s third largest island (2,787 sq km) after Vancouver I and Graham I – was named in 1853 by Cdr James Prevost of the HMS Virago, who happened to be Moresby’s son-in-law. This island became the focal point of the bitter conversation battle from the 1974 until 1987, when it was largely protected as Gwaii Hanas National Park Reserve, co-managed by the Haida people. The other two features named in 1858, when Moresby was a vice adm, by surveyor Capt George Richards. The southern Moresby I (6.5 sq km) settled since 1863, supported a dairy farm in the 1910s; the owners have included a German nobleman, BC lt gov Thomas Paterson, and a retired merchant from China named Horatio Robertson. The eccentric built a fancy home on Moresby and was known for mistreating his Chinese employees, who were sometimes seen pulling him through the streets of Victoria in a rickshaw. Mt Moresby, the highest point on the larger Moresby I (1,148m), is also named for the adm, as is Point Fairfax in the Gulf Is, which may, in addition, be named after his eldest son, Lt Fairfax Moresby (see Fairfax I). A campsite and boat launch at the head of Gillatt Arm, Cumshewa Inlet-once the site of a Rayonier logging camp, since moved S to Sewell Inlet –is known as Moresby Camp. Pages 400-401.

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

South of Graham Island, is the second largest of the Queen Charlotte group. Named in 1853 by Commander James Prevost after his father-in-law, rear Admiral Fairfax Moresby, who held the post of Commander-in-chief of the Pacific Station from 1850 to 1853.
Moresby Island is a long slender island of the fiords and mountains. The west coast has the same exposure to the full sweep of the Pacific as Graham Island, but is, perhaps, more stark and wild. Its rockbound shores are not fringed with great stretches of sand beaches and the 100-fathom line extending off from 1 to 3 miles, suddenly loses bottom as the ocean floor falls off to great depths.

Source: Dalzell, Kathleen E; "Queen Charlotte Islands - Book 2: of places and names"; Prince Rupert: Cove Press, 1973