George Van Diemen

George Van Diemen (c.1812 – 3 December 1827), also known as George Vandiemen, was a Tasmanian Aboriginal boy who was acquired by the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, William Sorell in 1819 and later sent to England to be educated under the British system. He appears to have been the first and only documented Indigenous Tasmanian of unmixed heritage to visit England while alive.

Early life George was born around the year 1812 close to what is now known as the locality of New Norfolk in Tasmania. His parents were Indigenous Tasmanians who were still living a mostly traditional Aboriginal lifestyle despite the increasing presence of British colonists taking their lands and killing their people. It is not known what George's traditional name was. After a long journey of approximately twelve months, they reached Liverpool where George's arrival was described in the local newspaper as an "object of curiosity".

Death and legacy George Van Diemen died in Hobart of tuberculosis on 3 December 1827. He was almost certainly the first and only Aboriginal Tasmanian of unmixed heritage to visit England while still living.