Grave of William Petrie

William Petrie's Grave (23 February 2009)


William Petrie was a Governor of Penang. Petrie was born in 1747. He served from September 1812 to October 1816, dying in office, and was buried at the Protestant Cemetery along Northam Road, George Town. He took over the job from Archibald Seton, who was absent from duty due to the Java Expedition. Petrie was Acting Governor between 29 November 1811 until 27 July 1812.

William Petrie started off his term of duty in Asia as an office of the British East India Company based in Madras (now Chennai), India, in the 1780s. He served as a Member of Council in the 1790s and also was promoted to be Governor of Madras in 1807. An avid astronomer, William Petrie set up his own observatory at his home in Madras. He later presented the observatory to the East India Company, which called it the Madras Observatory. It was the first modern astronomical observatory outside Europe. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics traces its history to it.