Adelaide city's planner William Light born the illegitimate son of illegitimate Francis Light: Penang's founder
Francis Light (left), who planned the city of George Town in Penang, Malaysia, and his son William, who planned the city of Adelaide, South Australia.
Adelaide's founder William Light was born in 1786 in in Kuala Kedah, Malaya, as the second son of Captain Francis Light and Martinha Rozells, a princess of Kedah but Portuguese Eurasian.
Francis Light was the illegitimate son of William Negus, a Suffolk landowner, and serving girl Mary Light, After Francis Light’s four years in the navy, he went to India in 1765 and became a trader around Siam, Malaya and Sumatra. At Francis Light’s urging, the East India Company took over the island of Penang from the sultan of Kedah in return for protection in 1786, with Light as the first superintendent.
His son William Light left Penang at six for England to be educated by his father's friends, George and Anne Doughty of Theberton, Suffolk. In 1799, aged 14, he volunteered for the navy and left as a midshipman after two years. He was a civilian prisoner in France in 1803 but escaped from Verdun.
He was in Calcutta for his sister’s wedding in 1806 when his brother-in-law, Major Welsh, fearing a massacre, disarmed part of his Indian regiment.
Back in England in 1808, Light bought a cornetcy in the 4th Dragoons, was promoted lieutenant in 1809 on the way to Spain and served with distinction in the Peninsular War. As an able linguist, Light was frequently sent to apply his tact in conferring with blood-thirsty guerrilla bands.
In 1812, he became a junior staff officer at the headquarters of General Arthur Wellesley (later Duke of Wellington) and employed his drawing skills on mapping, reconnaissance and liaison. He also survived more than 40 battle actions.
On return from Spain, Light bought a captaincy in the infantry in 1814. On half pay after the battle of Waterloo, which he just missed, he travelled around Europe. Later, back on full pay, he served in the British army in the Channel Islands, Scotland, and Ireland.
In 1821, he quit the army with the brevet rank of major and married E. Perois (fate unknown) in Londonderry. Turning again to the European Continent, he mixed in literary and artistic circles.
Light, in 1823, became aide-de-camp to Robert Wilson, who raised an international force to help Spanish “Liberales” in their constitutional struggle against King Ferdinand. Light served in the Spanish revolutionary army as a lieutenant colonel. The Liberales wilted before the French army which sided with Ferdinand, and Light was severely wounded in a scuffle for the possession of Corunna.
