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
William Augustus Pitt William Augustus Pitt General Sir William Augustus Pitt KB, PC (c. 1728 – 29 December 1809) was a long-serving if undistinguished senior officer of the British Army whose sixty years of service covered several major wars and numerous postings as garrison or regiment commander. He served as MP between 1754 and 1761. He came from a notable political family: his father was also an MP and his elder brother became Baron Rivers. Pitt was born in approximately 1728, the sixth but second surviving son of George Pitt, MP for Wareham and his wife Mary Louisa. His date of birth has