George Alexander William Leith

Major General Sir George Alexander William Leith, 2nd Baronet KCB (1766 – 25 January 1842)[1] was the first Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales' Island (Penang Island), replacing George Caunter, a magistrate who was acting superintendent following the resignation and departure of the last governor, Superintendent Major Forbes Ross MacDonald.

[4][5] In February 1800 Leith was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Prince of Wales' Island and invested with the whole civil and military authority; on 20 April he arrived and took charge of the government.

[3] Shortly after Leith's arrival on the island he deputed Caunter, now First Assistant, to negotiate a treaty with Dziaddin Mukarram Shah II for the cession of a 60-square-mile coastal strip on the mainland, until then part of the Kedah Sultanate.

In the words of Leith, writing in 1804, "The immediate advantages arising from the acquisition were, the obtaining of the entire command of the Harbour, which before was never possessed; the reducing of the Peoples of Prya into some degree of order, and a considerable increase in the value of the Opium and Arak farms.

[4][5] In 1805 he wrote and had published the book, "A Short Account of the Settlement, Produce, and Commerce of Prince of Wales Island, in the Straits of Malacca".