Sir Clements Robert Markham KCB FRS (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was a British explorer, author and geographer. As President of the Royal Geographical Society in the late nineteenth century, Markham was instrumental in financing British exploration of the polar areas. His attempts to have the British be the first to reach the poles, however, ultimately ended in failure.

Youth, cinchona, and a knighthood

Markham was born in Stillingfleet, Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. He was educated at Westminster School, joined the Royal Navy in 1844, and became a midshipman in 1848. He was a member of a crew sent to search for John Franklin in 1850, the explorer lost searching for a Northwest Passage in 1845, although few expected to find Franklin alive by this time, given the failure of previous rescue missions. On his return Markham was promoted to lieutenant but resigned from the Navy in 1852.

Following his retirement Markham explored the forests of the eastern Andes in Peru and is credited with introducing the cinchona tree (a source of quinine) to India and other British colonies. Markham inspected the cinchona plantations of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and India in 1865-1866. These plantings resulted in the first effective treatment for malaria to be produced within the boundaries of the British Empire. In gratitude for this work, Markham was honored with a knighthood, becoming Sir Clements.

Royal Geographical Society

In Markham's post-cinchona work, he served as a geographer on an expedition to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). In 1874 he accompanied the Arctic expedition under Sir George Nares as far as Greenland, learning the Royal Naval way of Arctic exploration that he continued to expound in later years, even when other nations had profitably learnt much from local people.

From 1867 to 1877 he was in charge of the geographical department of the Indian Office. He was secretary to the Hakluyt Society from 1858-1887, and became its president in 1890. From 1863-1888 he acted as secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, and on his retirement received the society's gold medal for his services to geography. He was elected president of the same society in 1893 and retained office for twelve years.

Polar exploration remained a key activity for the Society at that time and Markham co-ordinated the raising of funds for the National Antarctic Expedition under Captain Robert Scott that set sail in 1901, from Government, industry and individuals.

Sir Clements Markham was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1873; was made a CB in 1871, and a KCB in 1896. He died in 1916.

As a posthumous honour to his work in Peru, one of Peru's most prestigious schools was named after him, Markham College is located in Lima.

Selected works

• Editor, Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 1872-1878
• Franklin's Footsteps (1852)
• Cuzco and Lima (1856)
• Travels in Peru and India (1862)
• A Quichua Grammar and Dictionary (1863)
• Spanish Irrigation (1867)
• A History of the Abyssinian Expedition (1869)
• A Life of the Great Lord Fairfax (1870)
• Ollanta, a Quichua Drama (1871)
• Memoir on the Indian Surveys (1871)
• General Sketch of the History of Persia (1873)
• The Threshold of the Unknown Region (1874)
• A Memoir of the Countess of Chinchon (1875)
• Missions to Thibet (1877)
• Memoir of the Indian Surveys; Peruvian Bark (1880)
• Peru (1880): The War between Chile and Peru (1881)
• The Sea Fathers (1885)
• The Fighting Veres (1888)
• Paladins of King Edwin (1896)
• Life of John Davis the Navigator (1889)
• A Life of Richard III (1906)
• The Incas of Peru (1910)
• Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India by Garcia da Orta (1913: translation from Portuguese)

External links

• Works by Clements Markham at Project Gutenberg

References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• To the Arctic: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times Jeannette Mirsky, 1970 ISBN 0-226-53179-1

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