Philip Gidley King
First Commandant of Norfolk Island; later Governor of New South Wales · 1758–1808
Who is Philip Gidley King?
Philip Gidley King was a British Royal Navy officer who commanded the first European settlement of Norfolk Island. Sailing as a lieutenant with the First Fleet, he was dispatched by Governor Arthur Phillip aboard HMS Supply and landed at Sydney (now Kingston) Bay on 6 March 1788 with a small party of convicts and free settlers, founding what became the second British settlement in the Pacific after Sydney itself. As commandant, King oversaw the difficult early years of clearing land, planting crops such as flax and Norfolk pine intended for naval use, and defending the tiny colony against cyclones, food shortages, and pest infestations. He kept a detailed journal recording daily life on the island, an invaluable primary source for historians of early colonial Australia. King left Norfolk Island in 1790, returned briefly in 1791, and went on to a distinguished colonial career, ultimately serving as the third Governor of New South Wales from 1800 to 1806. His stewardship established Norfolk Island's earliest European institutions and set the administrative pattern the later penal and Pitcairn settlements would follow.
Sources: Philip Gidley King, Journal/Remarks kept on the Expedition to form a Colony... (1786-1790), State Library of New South Wales · Australian Dictionary of Biography, "King, Philip Gidley (1758-1808)" · Norfolk Island National Park, Parks Australia, "History"