Arthur Phillip

Arthur Phillip (1738 to 1814) was a Royal Navy officer who became the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales. Born in London to a German-born father, he was schooled at Greenwich Hospital School, went to sea young, and served in the Seven Years' War and, on loan, in the Portuguese Navy against Spain. In 1786 he was chosen to command the First Fleet of eleven ships that carried convicts to Botany Bay. Finding the site unsuitable, he moved the settlement to Port Jackson, the site of Sydney. He faced severe shortages of labour, discipline and supplies, favoured an end to convict status through emancipation, and wanted peaceful relations with the Indigenous peoples, though cultural differences led to conflict. He sailed home in December 1792 for medical treatment, later returned to naval commands in home waters, retired in 1805 and died in Bath in 1814.