Information

Shown below are items associated with George E. Darby available without first logging in. This person appears in records from MOA.

Knowledge shared by institutions

George Elias Darby was born in Ontario in 1889. He graduated in medicine from the University of Toronto in 1914. He and his wife, Edna Mathews moved to Bella Bella c. 1914 to oversee the newly built Methodist hospital (later named the R. W. Large Memorial Hospital). He and his wife Edna stayed in Bella Bella until his retirement in 1955. Darby regularly sailed the inlets of the central coast, setting up makeshift surgeries, and was known to have spoken Chinook. Chief Moody gifted him the name Wo-Ya-La in 1944. He received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from UBC in 1955. During their time in Bella Bella, George and Edna assembled a collection of Heiltsuk belongings. The collection was purchased by the Valedictory Class of 1931 for UBC. It was held by the UBC Geological Museum until 1947, when it was transferred to the Museum of Anthropology.

Born: 1889
Died: 1962