John Kirk (explorer)

Sir John Kirk, GCMG, KCB, FRS (1832 – 1922) was a Scottish physician, naturalist, companion to explorer Dr David Livingstone, and British administrator in Zanzibar, where he was instrumental in ending the slave trade in that country.

He was born on 19 December 1832 in Barry, Angus, near Arbroath, Scotland, and earned his medical degree from the University of Edinburgh.

Kirk’s daughter, Helen, married Major-General Henry Brooke Hagstromer Wright CB CMG, the brother of the famous bacteriologist and immunologist, Sir Almroth Edward Wright and of Sir Charles Theodore Hagberg Wright, Secretary and Librarian of London Library. Kirk’s son Colonel John William Carnegie Kirk was author of A British Garden Flora. The engineer, Alexander Carnegie Kirk, was John Kirk's elder brother.

Explorer

Dr Livingstone's ship the Ma Robert, photographed on the Zambesi at Lupata by John Kirk

From 1858 to 1864 Kirk accompanied the explorer Dr David Livingstone on the Second Zambezi Expedition as a botanist and experienced his work to end the East African slave trade. He found Livingstone an inept leader and in 1862 wrote I can come to no other conclusion than that Dr. Livingstone is out of his mind and a most unsafe leader".

In 1866 Livingstone’s began his next and final expedition, to find the source of the Nile, from Zanzibar. From Livingstone’s subsequent correspondence during the expedition it seems that Kirk remained in Zanzibar and did not continue with the rest of the party. After Livingstone’s death in 1873, Kirk pledged to continue his work to end the East African slave trade.

Diplomat

From his appointment in 1865 the British Consul in Zanzibar, Henry Adrian Churchill worked on the abolition of the slave trade on the island, however his heavy workload and the adverse climate took a toll on his health in 1869 and Kirk, who was his physician and Vice Consul, advised him to leave for London for the sake of his health. Churchill left in December 1870 leaving Kirk to undertake his duties as acting Consul.

Kirk continued Churchill’s work on the slave trade and in June 1873 he received simultaneous contradictory instructions from London on the Zanzibar slave trade, one to issue an ultimatum to Sultan Bargash, under threat of blockade that the slave trade should be stopped and the slave market closed, and the other not to enforce a blockade which might be taken as an act of war pushing Zanzibar towards French protection. Kirk only showed the first instruction to Barghash, who capitulated within two weeks.

In August 1873 he was appointed British Consul in Zanzibar and in 1875 was also appointed Consul in the Comoro Islands, and in 1881 was appointed Consul general in Zanzibar. For years he negotiated with Sultan Barghash, gaining his confidence and promising to help enrich the East African domain through legitimate commerce. By 1885 the region was larger and more profitable.

He was British Minister Plenipotentiary at the 1890 Slave Act Conference in Brussels.

Photography

Kirk photographed many scenes and people during his travels in East Africa. Examples include Hamed bin Muhammed, slave and ivory trader, and Female retainers of Swahili household in gala dress, and a panoramic view of Zanzibar.

Botany

Ochna kirkii

He was a keen botanist throughout his life and published many papers from his findings in East Africa. He was highly regarded by successive directors of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: William Hooker, Joseph Dalton Hooker and William Turner Thiselton-Dyer.

He introduced a very distinct and pretty species of orchid to the United Kingdom, subsequently named Angaecum Scottianum.

Eponyms

The Gossypioides kirkii, a new species of cotton from East Tropical Africa and the Ochna kirkii evergreen shrub were named after him.

Zoology

Kirk's red colobus of Zanzibar, Procolobus kirkii, taken at Jozani Forest, Zanzibar, Tanzania.

He studied the wildlife in East Africa and published many papers. He collected many birds from Zanzibar and East Africa. In 1892 he was credited with the third largest elephant horn among animal trophy hunters.

Eponyms

According to sources, Kirk first drew zoologists' attention to the Zanzibar red colobus, which is also commonly known as Kirk's red colobus. This species, Procolobus kirkii, which is endemic to Zanzibar, is named after him.

Also, a species of African lizard, Agama kirkii, is named in his honour, as is a species of African amphibian, Kirk's caecilian (Scolecomorphus kirkii).

• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Third Class, 1879
• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, Second Class, 1881
• Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for unremitting services to Geography, as a naturalist, as second-in-command to Dr. Livingstone, and as H.M. Consul-General at Zanzibar, 1882
• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, First Class, 1886
• Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath

He died on 15 January 1922 aged 89, and was buried in St. Nicholas' churchyard in Sevenoaks, Kent, England.