William Petrie

Who was William Petrie?

William Petrie was an Officer of the East India Company in Chennai during the 1780s. He set up a private observatory in his residence located in Egmore, Chennai, India. The main aim of the observatory was "to provide navigational assistance to the company ships and help determine the longitudes by observing the eclipses of Moon and satellites of Jupiter". He gave the observatory to the East India Company and the first modern astronomical observatory outside Europe was born. It was named as the Madras Observatory and was located in Nungambakkam . Michael Topping was appointed as the astronomer of this observatory by the Company. The Madras Observatory later evolved into Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Petrie was a Member of Council in Madras in the 1790s, and acted for three months as Governor of Madras in 1807. He was appointed Governor of Prince of Wales Island in 1809, and died there.

He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in November 1795.