Since we are moving to Penang, I thought it time to update myself on the islands history. Like Singapore, Penang was a completely British adventure. The third Straits Settlement, Malacca, was first sort of taken over by the Chinese, then Portuguese followed Dutch until finally the British. Nearly French too I think. Penang was originally part of the Malay Sultanate of Kedah. On 11 August 1786, Captain Francis Light of the British East India Company landed in Penang and renamed it Prince of Wales Island in honour of heir to the British throne. Light then received it as a portion on his marriage to the daughter of the Sultan of Kedah.
Seberang Perai (also known in English as Province Wellesley) is a narrow hinterland opposite Penang island on the Malay Peninsula, which together with the island forms the Malaysian state of Penang. The province was originally named after Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, Governor of Madras and Governor-General of Bengal (1797-1805), brother of the Duke of Wellington, no less. In fact, the Duke did spend some time on the island himself in his younger days. Not many people know that.
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