Verney Lovett Cameron

Verney Lovett Cameron (1844-1894), British explorer, born near Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, England. Cameron entered the British navy in 1857, and in 1873 he was sent to Africa by the Royal Geographical Society on a second expedition to relieve Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Soon after the expedition landed at Zanzibar and began its journey inland, Cameron and his party met servants bearing Livingstone's body. Cameron continued on, becoming the first European to cross tropical Africa from east to west when he reached the Atlantic Ocean in November 1875. On this expedition he found some of Livingstone's papers, which he sent back to England, and also explored the southern half of Lake Tanganyika. When he returned home Cameron was made a commander in the British navy and a companion of the Order of the Bath. In 1878-79 he traveled in Turkey, and in 1882, with British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton, he visited the African Gold Coast in search of gold. Cameron retired from the navy in 1883 and spent the rest of his life directing commercial projects in Africa. His writings include Across Africa (2 volumes, 1877).