Sir Clements R. Markham

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830–1916) was an English geographer, explorer and historian. He served as a boy in the Royal Navy, traveled in Peru, and in 1859 and 1860 led the expedition that collected cinchona plants in South America and introduced them to India. As secretary and then president of the Royal Geographical Society he championed polar exploration and chose Robert Falcon Scott to lead the Discovery expedition. He wrote or translated scores of books, including Travels in Peru and India, histories of the Incas, many volumes for the Hakluyt Society and a defense of Richard III. He was knighted in 1896.