Clements Markham

Sir Clements Markham

Sir Clements Robert Markham (born July 20, 1830 in Stillingfleet, Yorkshire , † January 30, 1916 , London ) was a British explorer, author and geographer.

As President of the Royal Geographical Society in the late 19th century, Markham played an essential role in the organization and funding of British polar expeditions. At his suggestion, for example, the appointment of Robert Falcon Scott as head of the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) goes back. Graham's main personal goal was for a Briton to be the first to reach the two poles of the earth, a goal that was not realized.

life and work

Markham was born in Stillingfleet, Yorkshire and raised at Westminster School . He became a member of the Royal Navy in 1844 and, as such, was a member of the crew looking for John Franklin . On his return from this search mission, Markham was made a lieutenant , but he resigned from the Royal Navy in 1852 with the aim of becoming an explorer in South America. However, he had to postpone this goal for the time being, as the death of his father resulted in difficult financial circumstances for him. To remedy this, he had to take on a number of office jobs in London.

However, as an employee of the India Office , Markham managed to convince his superiors to export the Peruvian cinchona tree to India . This gave him the opportunity to indulge his wanderlust. The fact that this tree, the bark of which was used for malaria diseases, was successfully planted in India and other British colonies is largely due to Markham.

In 1864 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . From 1865 to 1866 he stayed in what was then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka , and India , where he visited the cinchona tree plantations there. As a geographer he accompanied an expedition to Ethiopia and in 1874 he joined an Arctic expedition that took him to Greenland . During this time he did a lot of research on the methodology used by the Royal Navy to tackle the Arctic expeditions. This included the so-called "man-hauling" , in which the expedition participants had to pull large loads on transport sleds on foot. He stuck to this method even when other nations (such as the Norwegians around Roald Amundsen ) tried out the survival techniques of the Eskimos and adapted them for their purposes, such as the use of sled dogs .

From 1867 to 1877 he headed the geographic department of the British Indian Office and from 1863 to 1888 he served as secretary of the Royal Geographic Society. From 1893 to 1905 he was the president of this society. His election as president came at a time when interest in polar expeditions was growing again. However, the British Admiralty did not finance an Antarctic expedition, as the necessary financial resources were to be used elsewhere due to the beginning arms race with Germany.

Markham then tried to set up a privately funded expedition, which turned out to be very difficult. The expedition, which was eventually led by Robert Falcon Scott, finally came about after a two-year delay only after 45,000 British pounds were contributed.

On May 20, 1896 he was knighted as Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB).

After Markham, among others, Mount Markham , Markham Island , Clements Island and Markham Bay in Antarctica, the Clements Markham Glacier in Greenland, the headland of Markham Point on the north coast of South Georgia and the River Markham in Papua New Guinea are named. Cape Minna Bluff in Antarctica bears his wife's name.

Fonts (selection)

• Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 1872–1878 (Editor)
• Franklin's Footsteps: a sketch of Greenland along the shores of which his expedition passed, and of the Parry Isles where the last traces of it were found . - London: Chapman and Hall, 1853
• Cuzco: a Journey to the Ancient Capital of Peru; with an Account of the History, Language, Literature and Antiquities of the Incas; and Lima: a Visit to the Capital and Provinces of Modern Peru . - London: Chapman and Hall, 1856 (New edition: Periodicals Service Company, 1972. ISBN 0-527-61450-5 )
• Travels in Peru and India: while superintending the collection of chinchona plants ... and their introduction into India . - London: John Murray, 1862
• Contributions towards a Grammar and Dictionary of the Quichua, the Language of the Incas of Peru . - London: Trübner & Co. 1864
• Report on the Irrigation of Eastern Spain . - London, 1867
• A History of the Abyssinian Expedition . - London: Macmillan, 1869
• Life of the great Lord Fairfax: commander-in-chief of the Army of the Parliament of England . - London: Macmillan, 1870
• Ollanta, a Quichua drama . - London: N. Truner & .Co., 1871
• Memoir on the Indian Surveys . - London: Allen & Co., 1871 (New edition: New Delhi, Manohar, 2004. ISBN 81-7304-526-7 )
• A General Sketch of the History of Persia (1873)
• The Threshold of the Unknown Region . - London: S. Low, Marston, Low & Searle, 1873
• Memoir of the Lady Anna di Osoria, Countess of Chinchona and Vice-Queen of Peru . - London, 1874
• Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet, and of the Journey of Thomas Manning to Lhasa . - London, 1879
• Memoir of the Indian Surveys . - London: WH Allen and Co., 1878 (Reprint: New Delhi, Manohar, 2004. ISBN 81-7304-526-7 )
• Peru (1880)
• The War between Chili and Peru, 1879-1882 . - London, Edinburgh: S. Low, Marston, and Company, 1883
• The Sea Fathers: A Series of Lives of Great Navigators of Former Times . - London: Cassell, 1884
• The Fighting Veres: Lives of Sir Francis Vere, general of the queen's forces in the Low countries, governor of the Brill and of Portsmouth, and of Sir Horace Vere, general of the English forces in the Low countries, governor of the Brill, master -general of ordnance, and baron Vere of Tilbury . - London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1888.
• Paladins of Edwin the Great (1896)
• A life of John Davis , the navigator, 1550-1605: discoverer of Davis Straits . - New York: Dodd, Mead; London: George Philip & Sons, 1889
• A History of Perú . Sergel & Co., Chicago 1892
• The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his first voyage, 1492-93), and documents relating to the voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real . - London: Chas. J. Clark, 1893
• Richard III: His Life and Character Renewed in the Light of Recent Research . - London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1906
• The Incas of Peru . - London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1910
• Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez De Clavijo to the Court of Timour, at Samarcand, AD1403-6: Translated, for the First Time, with Notes, a Preface and an Introductory Life of Timour Beg (Hardcover) 1859

See also

• Works issued by the Hakluyt Society

Web links

Commons : Clements Markham  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Clements Markham in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Clements Markham  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 1, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 294.
2. ↑ Knights and Dames: MA – MIF at Leigh Rayment's Peerage