Hugh Clapperton

1788 - 1827

Explorer, born in Annan (Dumfries and Galloway). Clapperton served in both the merchant fleet and the navy, travelling to India and Canada. Invited to by the Admiralty to take part in an expedition which sought the source of the River Niger, which had been partially explored by Mungo Park (1796). Clapperton reached Lake Chad in 1823, which was the source of one of the Niger's major tributaries. On a second expedition to the same area, he died of fever near Sokoto (Nigeria). His travelling companion returned with records of the expedition which were published as the Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa (1829).

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