George William Maxwell (c.1755-1791) was a lieutenant in the navy when he arrived at Sydney aboard the Sirius in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.
Maxwell was ill on the voyage to New South on the Sirius and began to show increasing signs of mental disturbance. He was ordered home on 26 December 1789 after being declared insane by surgeons George Worgan, John White and Denis Considen.
In April 1790, as the colony's food shortage reached crisis point he was observed rowing a small boat from one side of the harbour to the other, without food, for nearly two days. He was brought back and kept under close scrutiny.
Maxwell left the colony on the Waaksamheid in March 1791 and died at sea on 13 April 1791.
* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 242
'Maxwell, George William (c. 1755–1791)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/maxwell-george-william-31496/text38951, accessed 19 April 2024.