- Also known as
-
Sir Harry Johnston
-
primary name: Johnston, Harry Hamilton
- Details
- individual; scientist/engineer; official; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1858-1927
- Address
- St John's Priory, Poling, near Arundel.
- Biography
- British explorer, botanist, artist and colonial official in Africa between 1880 and 1901.
1882-3 in Angola and the Congo,
1884 leader of an 1884 scientific expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro and Kenya.
1886 vice-consul in Cameroon and the Niger River delta area; acting consul in 1887.
1888-95 in British Central Africa (Malawi, Zambia) with a gap in 1894
1896 Tunis
1899-1901 Kenya/Uganda
Johnston was a generous donor to the BM and gave groups of material which he collected for the BM in groups as follows:
1885 Kenya (Af1885,1209.1 to 8)
1889 Cross River (Af1889,0304.1 to 23)
1893 Malawi (Af1893,0804.1 to 127)
1894 Malawi (Af1894,1121.1 to 68)
1896 Malawi (Af1896,0318.1 to 11)
1901 Kenya/Uganda (Af1901,1113.1 to 92)
1906 Liberia and miscellaneous (Af1906,1016.1 to 19) collected on a visit in summer 1904
He also collected natural history and botanical specimens for the BM Natural History.
See AOA Christy Correspondence for List of 'Specimens from E.C. Africa sent by H H Johnston Esq CIS', July 1893, which includes detailed sketches of spears, bows, arrows, chief's staffs, etc. from Nyasaland.
- Bibliography
- (autobiography) 'The story of my life'
Johnston also write a large number of books on Africa, as well as a few novels in later life.
Alex Johnston, ' The Life and Letters of Sir Harry Johnston', London: Jonathan Cape, 1929, 351pp (written by his brother)
Roland Oliver, 'Sir HJ and the scramble for Africa', London 1957
