Markham, Clements Robert (1830–1916)

British traveller and geographer. He took part in H T Austin's Arctic expedition of 1850–51. On his retirement from the civil service in 1877, he devoted himself to the study of exploration. He wrote many books on the history of exploration, the lives of explorers, and contemporary geographical research. He did much to encourage exploration, and had great influence in the organization of R F Scott's first Antarctic expedition, 1901–04.

He was born at Stillingfleet, Yorkshire and educated at Cheam and Westminster schools. He served in the British Navy 1844–52. In 1853 he entered the civil service and spent most of the following 25 years in the India Office, where he organized the introduction of quinine-yielding chinchona trees to India and took charge of geographical work.

For many years he was president of the Royal Geographical and Hakluyt societies. Among his works are lives of Christopher Columbus, John Davis, and Richard Haklyut, as well as Travels in Peru and India (1862), Memoir of the Indian Surveys (1871), Quichua Dictionary (1908), and The Incas of Peru (1910).