Guillemard, Francis Henry Hill

Francis Henry Hill Guillemard (1852-1933), geographer, traveller and writer.

From the guide to the Napoleoniana, c. 1895 (copies of originals of 1815-1816), (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)

Francis Henry Hill Guillemard was born in 1852 in Eltham, Kent. He graduated with an MD degree from Caius College, Cambridge, but never practised medicine, choosing instead to travel extensively. In 1881, he served as a doctor in the first Boer War in South Africa, and between 1882 and 1884, participated in a zoological expedition in the yacht Marchesa, visiting New Guinea and most of the chief islands of the Malay Archipelago. He brought back large zoological collections from the voyage and published The cruise of the Marchesa in 1886. In 1887, he travelled to Cyprus to conduct zoological research, later initiating the Cyprus Exploration Fund and publishing work on the ornithology of Cyprus.

In 1888, he was elected the first reader in geography at Cambridge but resigned after holding the post for a year. In 1892, Guillemard accompanied Sir Charles Euan Smith on his mission to the court of Morocco. On his return, he settled in Cambridge where he served as geographical editor of the Cambridge University Press. He died in 1933 at Trumpington, Cambridge.

Published work The cruise of the Marchesa to Kamschatka and New Guinea, with notices of Formosa, Liu-Liu, and various islands of the Malay Archipelago by Francis Henry Hill Guillemard, John Murray London (1886) SPRI Library Shelf (50)91(08)[1882], The life of Ferdinand Magellan and the first circumnavigation of the globe, 1480-1521, by Francis Henry Hill Guillemard, George Philip and Son, London (1891) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Magellan, F.]

From the guide to the Francis Guillemard collection, 1921, (Scott Polar research Institute, University of Cambridge)