Colonel William Light 1786 - 1839

...I have now the honor, gentlemen, to propose the health of our talented and esteemed guest, Colonel Light.... 'if the combination of every thing that was honorable, everything that was gentlemanly, coupled with extraordinary talents, centred in one man, that one person was him on whom you have bestowed a testimony of your regard, and indeed the object of that testimony is most richly deserving of it...'
...Colonel Light rose to address the meeting, but his emotion was so great that after several ineffectual efforts to do so he reseated himself... Colonel Light hoped the company would allow him to propose a toast which he felt would be received with much enthusiam--The laboring classes of this colony. Immense cheering.
(The Southern Australian 6th June 1838 2nd Dinner to Colonel Light)

He was a beautiful draftsman, a great linguist, a daring and accomplished horseman, and a brave and gallant soldier, as all his companions-in-arms can testify.
(Colonel Palmer to Angas 12th April 1841)

He is mentioned...as having on one occasion undertaken to ascertain the strength of a column of the French army, the head of which was just appearing in the distance. He galloped to the front to within a hundred yards of the French, then in line, and was fired at. Being a superior horseman, and well mounted, he pretended to be wounded, and cantered wildly along the line from flank to flank, counting the regiments as he passed, his body swaying about on his horse as though he were mortally wounded, and thus escaped any further attack. When he had gained all the information he desired (for he was near enough to read the number of the several regiments on their caps), he gradually increased his distance until beyond the reach of fire, when he resumed his erect position, and putting spurs to his charger, reached the English lines in safety.
(From Colonel Napier's Peninsular War)

...he told me he was going to Australia to found a new colony... of which he was to be the Surveyor-General upon the recommendation of the late Duke of Wellington, on whose staff he had served during the Peninsular War;...
(Letter from Admiral Pullen Abbey and Cheshunt Weekly Telegraph)

I advise you... to try and get Colonel Light appointed Governor; whether he would accept it or not I cannot say, but his great accomplishments and his character being so generally known, not only for his distinguished services in the Peninsula under the Duke of Wellington, but also in Spain at the time Sir Robert Wilson was there, would give an eclat to the appointment, which might be useful to the Colony, and at the same time secure an able man for the work.
(Sir Charles Napier to The Commissioners after refusing the Governorship)

I have engaged one of the sealers from Kangaroo Island, with his two native wives, and find them very useful;--the women are the hunters--and we have already been the better by their exertions, with the tail and hind quarters of an enormous kangaroo; it is fine food, and to those who are fond of ox-tail soup, I should recommend a trip to South Australia, to eat Kangaroo-tail soup, which if made with the skills that soups in England are, would far surpass the ox as turtle does the French potage.
(Capper's South Australia 1837)

I cannot say how much I suffered (although I was determined not to allow individual feeling to hurt the future prospects of the colony) from the evident discontent expressed by all parties on my insisting on landing stores and all there; but I find now they have changed their minds, and think this is the place for the capital of a flourishing colony.
(Holdfast Bay, November 24th, 1836)

I was never sanguine on any point but one, and that was the eligibility of the site for Adelaide in that I was always confident; but in my own affairs never.
(Light to Jacob October 5 1838)

Where in the wide world will you find a city better planned than Adelaide? Adelaide with its broad streets and with its quincunx of squares and its park lands 2,300 acres in extent--a grand inheritance of the citizens for all time. The choice and laying out of the site of the City of Adelaide was an effort of genius.
(Sir Samuel Way, Lieutenant-Governor's address June 1905)