William Leigh was born in Staffordshire, England in 1829. His father acquired land in Adelaide in 1837, and invested in mines in South Australia and South Africa. Sent on a restorative sea voyage to the Australasian colonies in 1852, William Leigh sketched prolifically in South Africa, South Australia, NSW, Queensland and New Zealand until his return to England at the end of 1854. His 18 months abroad were mainly spent in South Australia, where he produced dozens of views, some of which related to his father's mining interests. William Leigh has sometimes been confused with another sketcher, W.H. Leigh, a ship's surgeon who visited Australia on a South Australian Company vessel in 1837 and published an account of his travels -- Reference: The Dictionary of Australian artists : painters, sketchers, photographers and engravers to 1870 / edited by Joan Kerr. Melbourne : Oxford University Press, 1992