(1786–1828), British explorer and member of Hugh Clapperton's central Africa expedition. Between 1821 and 1825, Major Dixon Denham crossed the Sahara from Tripoli to Bornu and explored the Lake Chad region before returning across the desert. Denham was born on January 1, 1786, and after education at the Merchant Taylors' School took up a military career, serving with some distinction in the latter stages of the Napoleonic Wars. He offered his services to the Colonial Office, having learned that an official expedition was planned in which Walter Oudney and Hugh Clapperton were to try to establish good relations with the Muslim rulers of the western Sudan. The party planned to reach there from the north and perhaps solve the problem of the course and termination of the Niger. Denham joined them.
From The Oxford Companion to World Exploration in Oxford Reference.
Subjects: World History.