Pitt Street, George Town have lived here for centuries. Pitt Street was named after William Pitt the Younger, who was the Prime Minister of Great Britain between 1783 and 1801. When Captain Francis Light founded Penang Island in 1786, he renamed the island the "Prince of Wales Island" in honour of the Prince of Wales, the new settlement of George Town after King George III and the first street within the settlement after himself. Worried that Prime Minister William Pitt may have felt offended as nothing was named after him, Light felt compelled to name Pitt Street after him. Pitt Street, created soon after
Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry Thomas Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry Thomas Innes Pitt, 1st Earl of Londonderry (c. 1688 – 12 September 1729) was a British politician. He served as Governor of the Leeward Islands from 1728 to 1729. Pitt was the second son of Thomas Pitt, of Boconnoc, and his wife Jane Innes, daughter of James Innes. William Pitt the Elder was his nephew and William Pitt the Younger his great-nephew. Pitt sat as a Member of Parliament for Wilton from 1713 to 1727 and for Old Sarum from 1727 to 1728. The latter year he was appointed Governor of the Leeward Islands,