William Lanne

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William Lanne

William Lanne (also known as King Billy or William Laney) (c. 1835 - March 3, 1869) was a Tasmanian Aboriginal, and third husband of Truganini. He is most well-known as the last surviving male of the Oyster Cove clan.

Lanne was captured along with his family in 1842 during a period known as the Black War. He was taken to the Aboriginal camp at Wybelenna on Flinders Island by George Augustus Robinson. In 1847, he temporarily moved to Oyster Cove, and was sent to an orphanage in Hobart until 1851. In 1855 he joined a whaling ship.

Lanne died on 3 March 1869 from a combination of cholera and dysentery.

Following his death his body was dismembered and used for scientific purposes. An argument broke out between the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the Royal Society in Tasmania over who should possess his remains. A member of the English College of Surgeons, William Crowther, managed to break into the morgue where Lanne's body was kept and decapitated the corpse, removed the skin and inserted a skull from a white body into the black skin. The Tasmanian Royal Society soon discovered Crowther's work, and decided to thwart any further attempts to collect "samples" by amputating the hands and feet and discarding them separately. Lanne was then buried in this state.

His name was given to the "King Billy Pine", or Athrotaxis, a native Tasmanian tree whose wood is renowned for its durability to rot and insects.