Everything about William Light totally explained
Colonel William Light (
1786 -
6 October 1839) was a distinguished military officer and latterly Surveyor-General of
South Australia. He was born in
Kuala Kedah (which is now in
Kedah,
Malaysia) in 1786, an illegitimate son of
Captain Francis Light, the Governor of
Penang, and
Martina Rozells, of mixed
Siamese and
Portuguese descent. He died in
Adelaide, South Australia, from tuberculosis.
Facts
Colonel Light designed Adelaide and selected its location. One of the reasons he chose the location was because clouds drifting over the nearby mountain ranges would provide rainfall. This was a promising indicator of good conditions for agriculture.
When Colonel Light was designing Adelaide his plans included surrounding the city with of parklands. This would provide clean fresh air throughout Adelaide. European cities often had polluted stale and Light wanted to avoid this occurring in Adelaide.
It isn't possible for Colonel Light to have designed
Christchurch in
New Zealand, as sometimes claimed; Christchurch was designed by Englishman Edward Jollie in March 1850 and Light designed Adelaide in March 1837 and died in Adelaide in 1839.
Military career
At the age of thirteen, Light volunteered for the
Royal Navy, in which he served for two years. He then travelled through Europe and
India before joining the
British Army in 1808. After courageous service against
Napoleon's forces from 1809 to 1814 in the Spanish
Peninsular War, he went on to serve in various parts of Britain as a
Captain. He married in 1821. In 1823 he returned to
Spain to fight in the
Spanish Revolutionary Army as a
lieutenant colonel. He was badly wounded and spent the next six years travelling Europe and the
Mediterranean, accompanied by his second wife Mary (due to a lack of information his first wife is presumed dead).
Between 1830 and 1835 he helped
Mohammad Ali, founder of modern
Egypt, to establish a Navy. Here Light met
John Hindmarsh, who served under him and succeeded him as captain of the
Nile.
South Australia
Light was initially considered for the position of
Governor of South Australia - this was, however, given to
Hindmarsh. Instead, in 1835, Light was appointed Surveyor-General of the new colony. He sailed for South Australia with his mistress Maria Gandy (his second wife having left him for another man) and some of his staff on the
Rapid.
There Light laid out the street plan of the city of
Adelaide, which persists to this day. The city was planned by Light in a grid fashion with the main streets running east to west to avoid the dust storms blowing from the north.
His role in founding and designing the South Australian capital is remembered as "
Light's Vision", and commemorated with a statue on
Montefiore Hill pointing to the City of Adelaide below. (This role is, however, disputed.
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Extracts from his diary in 1839, are on a plaque attatched to the statue and highlight the difficulty Light faced in having this site chosen. 'The reasons that led me to fix Adelaide where it's I don't expect to be generally understood or calmly judged of at present. My enemies however, by disputing their validity in every particular, have done me the good service of fixing the whole of the responsibility upon me. I'm perfectly willing to bear it, and I leave it to posterity and not to them, to decide whether I'm untitled to praise or to blame'.
Legend has it that this was the spot from which the Colonel chose the site for the city. The statue that's located overlooking the city of Adelaide is believed to be the spot where he first stood and surveyed the flat plain which was soon to be Adelaide. However, the first place could have been at the corner of North Terrace and West Terrace which is now dominated by the Newmarket Hotel.
Light's design for Adelaide is noted as one of the last great planned metropolises; the city's grid layout, interspaced by public squares, has made it an ideal modern city, able to cope with traffic, and the
Adelaide Parklands that surround it provide a "city in a park" feel.
Light resigned from his position in 1838 after refusing to use less accurate
surveying methods for country surveys and formed a private company. In January 1839 the Land and Survey Office and his adjoining hut (along with that of
James Hurtle Fisher) burned down, taking some of the colony's early records and many of Light's diaries, papers and sketches with it.
Light spoke several languages and was an artist. Many of his sketches were published in London in 1823 and 1828.
Death
Light died on
6 October 1839, finally succumbing to
tuberculosis. He was buried and immortalised in
Light Square, one of the five squares of the City of Adelaide. A memorial was erected in 1843 (this quickly eroded and crumbled and was replaced in 1905). There a monumental obelisk, topped with a surveyors theodolite, signals his resting place. It notes that Light is the only person legally buried after settlement within the city square.
Memorials
Colonel William Light is commemorated in a number of ways, including:
A memorial and plaque near the corner of
North Terrace and
West Terrace, Adelaide, marks the approximate location of the Land and Survey offices and Light's and Fisher's huts, which were destroyed by fire in 1839.
Further Information
Get more info on 'William Light'.
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