Subject

Traveller and ethnologist. Born Islington as Mary Henrietta Kingsley. Only after the death of her parents could she fulfil her aspirations of travel. Her first book, "Travels in West Africa", published in 1897, was a big success. Died of typhoid nursing Boer War prisoners at Simonstown. Charles Kingsley was her uncle.

We are grateful to Caroline who kindly wrote to correct the previous version of this entry. Caroline wrote “Mary Kingsley did not study at Cambridge, although her brother did. She was almost completely self-taught (from her father's library) and received very little, if any, formal education. She travelled twice to West Africa. Upon her return she wrote and lectured on her travels and was a proponent (although rather unsuccessfully) of the Africans' rights under British rule.”