 Like the adjacent Harcourt Road, the park is named for Admiral Cecil Harcourt, de facto governor of Hong Kong from September 1945 to June 1946.The park is on land reclaimed from Victoria Harbour in 1863.As part of the large naval and military installations that dominated this area until the 1970s and 1980s, this site was formerly occupied by the Wellington Battery and the Military Hospital, all associated with the Wellington Barracks.