Biography

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830-1916), knight, geographer and historian, was born on 20 July 1830 at the vicarage, Stillingfleet, Yorkshire. After attending private school at Cheam, Surrey, from 1839 to 1842 and Westminster School from 1842 to 1844, he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet. He spent 1852-3 in Peru, exploring Inca sites and reading manuscripts in preparation for his Cuzco... and Lima (1856), a work of history, geography, and archaeology. From 1854, at what was to become the India Office, he was commissioned to carry from Peru to India seeds of the cinchona tree, the source of quinine. Back in London, Markham built up around him the geographical department of the India Office. His Report on the Geographical Department (1877) and the second edition of his Memoir on the Indian Surveys (1878) summarized his achievements at the India Office and his hopes that his work would be continued. He was largely instrumental in getting under way the Discovery expedition (the National Antarctic Expedition) of 1901-4 under Robert Falcon Scott. He died on 30 January 1916 at his home in London.

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