William Light brings his housekeeper/mistress Maria Gandy with him on the 'Rapid' to South Australia in August, 1836

The province's first surveyor general William Light (in an 1839 self portrait, above) decided to live openly with his housekeeper, privately regarded as his mistress, Maria Gandy in the small South Australian settlement.

First surveyor general of the province, William Light followed his two marriages by bringing his mistress Maria Gandy with him to South Australia in 1836 and challenging the small community’s social mores.

In May 1821, Light had married his first wife, E. Perois, in Londonderry in northern Ireland, where he was stationed with the British army. Little is known of Perois beyond her name or the fate of the marriage.

Light also sold his commission in the British army in 1821. Two years later, he went back to fight in the Spanish revolutionary war and was wounded during the defence of Corunna.

In 1824, Light married Mary Bennet, the illegitimate daughter of the third Duke of Richmond. Bennet had a small fortune. Her wealth was possibly important to Light because his father’s extensive estates on the island of Penang in Malaya had been taken by his father's friends from his Eurasian mother Martina Rozells (who called herself Tong Di).

During a Mediterranean cruise with Bennet that took them up the RIver Nile, Light became friendly at Alexandria in 1830 with Mohammed Ali, the de facto ruler of Egypt from 1805 to 1848 and considered founder of its modern state. To recruit British officers for the Mohammed Ali's navy in Egypt, Light sailed his yacht to England.

He revisited Alexandria briefly in 1832 when he separated from his wife. During his absence from Egypt, Bennet had been living with another officer, Hugh Bowen. She had children by Bowen and another poet lover. The children later were given the name of Light.

Light brought to South Australia the 21-year-old Maria Gandy and her two brothers William and Edward who joined joined some of his survey team on the brig Rapid, arriving at Kangaroo Island on August 17, 1836. As his housekeeper but regarded privately as his mistress, Gandy lived with him in Adelaide city until January 22, 1839, when Light’s hut and survey office on North Terrace burnt to the ground. They then moved to Theberton cottage, in the later mispelled Thebarton, where Gandy nursed Light until his death from tuberculosis on October 6, 1839.

Light’s decision to live openly with Gandy in the small South Australian settlement challenged its mores. It would have disturbed the devoutly Christian second governor of South Australia, George Gawler. But Gawler's decision not to reinstate Light as surveyor general in 1838 was under the pretext that he wouldn't retract comments concerning colonisation commission board secretary Rowland Hill's criticism. But Gawler also was being manipulated by the scheming George Milner Stephen (and perhaps others) who wanted Charles Sturt to be appointed surveyor general. .