| Language of origin | English language |
| Feature Type: | Island - Land area surrounded by water or marsh. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | In Matheson Lake, SW side of Metchosin District Municipality, Metchosin Land District |
| Tags: | World War II |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 48°21'46"N, 123°36'00"W at the approximate centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92B/5 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Adopted 2 October 2000 on 92B/5, effective 11 November 2000. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Named to remember RCAF Flying Officer Ian George Gillespie, J14698, from Sooke. F/O Gillespie was serving as a pilot with 404 Squadron, age 20, and flying a coastal command mission when his plane was shot down 22 December 1943 off the coast of Norway. With no grave but the sea, his name is inscribed on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, UK, panel 173. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Matheson Lake was part of RCAF F/O Ian Gillespie's grandfather's considerable property holdings near Sooke at the turn of the century; the property was transferred from his grandfather to his father, Errol Gillespie, in the early 1920s and this island was a popular swimming & rowing destination for Ian Gillespie and his 3 siblings. The property was donated to the province for parkland in the mid-1950s, since transferred to local government administration. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |