RICHARD BURTON

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-189) was an English explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat. His best-known achievements include travelling in disguise to Mecca, an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights, and bringing the Kama Sutra to publication in English - thereby introducing the world to what is now regarded as a standard work on human sexual behaviour. Following a career in the army of the East India Company serving in India (and later, briefly, in the Crimean War), he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa and led the expedition guided by the locals that discovered Lake Tanganyika. In later life he served as British consul in Fernando Po, Santos, Damascus and, finally, Trieste. He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.