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- Sir Harry Johnston
- Also known as
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Sir Harry Johnston
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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. Knighted 1896.
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 Uganda
1902 Retired to England
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 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