John Barrow

Sir John Barrow was born in the English hamlet of Dragley Beck, near Lancashire, on 19 June 1764. As a schoolboy he excelled in Mathematics. He began his professional life the age of 13, when he worked as a clerk in an iron foundry in Liverpool. He went to sea for the first time at the tender age of 16, joining a whaling expedition to Greenland. Afterwards while still in his twenties he taught Mathematics for a time at a private school in Greenwich. Through connections he made there, he was attached on the first British embassy to China from 1792-94.

In 1797, Barrow traveled to South Africa and explored its little-known interior where he drew much needed maps. His published accounts of these travels earned him fame as author, explorer and geographer. He later worked as a diplomat in the Cape Colony. He married and settled in South Africa in 1800.

In 1804 he returned to England and was appointed Second Secretary to the Admiralty, a post he would hold for some 40 years. At the Admiralty he was a great promoter of British exploration of West Africa and the North Polar Regions. Barrow Strait, Barrow Sound and Barrow Point in the Arctic and Cape Barrow in the Antarctic were named in his honour.

Sir John was a founder member and key figure in the foundation of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. The Society was to become the premier promoter of 19th century exploration. He had a baronetcy conferred on him 1835 by Sir Robert Peel, before retiring in 1845.

He wrote a history of Arctic voyages and his autobiography. His other literary works include the lives of John Macaulay, Lord Anson, Lord Howe and Peter the Great. His writings also included biographies of Naval men and a standard work on The Mutiny on the Bounty. This book is now included in The World's Classics series. He lists 195 articles in the Quarterly Review and 12 in Encyclopaedia Britannica.

His life's work and his writings made a great contribution to the geographical knowledge of the day.

Author of inter alia Travels into the interior of Southern Africa (volumes I and II). London, Cadwell and Davies, 1806. Apparently also published in Dutch as Reizen in de Binnelanden van het Zuidelyk Deel van Afrika in de Jaren 1797 en 1798 Harlem, 1803. This book is the source of much circumstantial information about late 18th century performance in South Africa, used by Bosman, Fletcher and others.

F.C.L. Bosman, 1928. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel I: 1652-1855. Pretoria: J.H. de Bussy. [1]

Jill Fletcher. 1994. The Story of Theatre in South Africa: A Guide to its History from 1780-1930. Cape Town: Vlaeberg.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/sir-john-barrow-84-explorer-interior-sa-dies-london