IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0117 MS 374
Held at: Royal Society
Title: Laing, Alexander Gordon (1794-1826)
Date(s): 19th century
Level of description: sub-fonds
Extent: 2 boxes and 2 notebooks
Name of creator(s): Laing | Alexander Gordon | 1794-1826 | traveller
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born, 1794; educated, Edinburgh University; commissioned in the Prince of Wales's Edinburgh volunteers, 1810; went to Barbados, 1811; appointed ensign in the York light infantry, a corps which served in the West Indies, 1813; promoted lieutenant, 1815; exchanged into the 2nd West India regiment in Jamaica; posted to Sierra Leone, 1820; captain to the Royal African Colonial Corps, 1822; two successive missions to Forecariah in the coastal country (later Guinea) north of Sierra Leone; transferred to the Gold Coast, 1823; official mission to seek the mouth of the Niger, 1824; died on the mission in 1826.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Letters and papers of Alexander Gordon Laing chiefly relating to his last and fatal expedition to Timbuktoo.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
No publication without written permission. Apply to Archivist in the first instance.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
His papers were sent, after his death, to Sir Edward Sabine, and came to the Society some time after Sir Edward's death.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Copied from the Royal Society catalogue by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Feb 2009.