Fort Cornwallis is a bastion fort in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, built by the British East India Company in the late 18th century. Named after the then Lieutenant-General The 2nd Earl Cornwallis (1738–1805), the Governor-General of Bengal at the time of the fort's construction, it is the largest standing fort in Malaysia. The fort never engaged in combat during its operational history.
Captain Francis Light, R.N., took possession of Penang Island from the Sultan of Kedah in 1786 and built the original fort. It was a nibong (a Malay term meaning 'palm trunk') stockade with no permanent structures, covering an area of 417.6 square feet (38.80 m2). The fort's purpose was to protect Penang from pirates and Kedah. Captain Light, who died in 1794, renamed Penang Island as Prince of Wales Island in 1786.
In 1804, after the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, and during Colonel R.T. Farquhar's term as Governor of Prince of Wales Island (also known as Penang Island), Indian convict labourers rebuilt the fort using brick and stone. Fort Cornwallis was completed in 1810, at the cost of $80,000, during Norman Macalister’s term as Governor of Penang. A moat 9 metres wide by 2 metres deep once surrounded the fort but it was filled in the 1920s due to a malaria outbreak in the area.