imported>JJMC89 bot III: Removing :Category:1910 murders in Africa per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2025 January 15#Crimes in Africa between 1900–1949

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Removing Category:1910 murders in Africa per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2025 January 15#Crimes in Africa between 1900–1949

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{{Short description|British Army officer, explorer and ornithologist (1873–1910)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Boyd Alexander
| image = Boyd_Alexander_1902.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Alexander in 1902
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1873|01|16}}
| birth_place = [[Cranbrook, Kent]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1910|04|02|1873|01|16}}
| death_place = Nyeri, [[Wadai Empire|Wadai]]
| body_discovered =
| death_cause =
| resting_place =
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| monuments =
| nationality = British
| citizenship =
| other_names =
| known_for = Exploration and [[ornithology]]
| education = [[Radley College]] and [[RMA Sandhurst]]
| alma_mater =
| employer =
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| occupation = Soldier
| years_active =
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}}

Lieutenant '''Boyd Alexander''' (16 January 1873 – 2 April 1910) was an English officer in the [[British Army]], as well as an [[List of explorers|explorer]] and [[ornithologist]].

== Early life ==
Boyd was the oldest son (with a twin brother) of Lt Colonel Boyd Francis Alexander. On his mother's side he was the grandson of [[David Wilson (Calcutta)|David Wilson]],{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} the founder of the [[Places of interest in Kolkata#Historic hotels|Great Eastern Hotel]] in Calcutta. He was born at [[Swifts Park]] at [[Cranbrook, Kent|Cranbrook]] in [[Kent]] and educated at Radley and Sandhurst.

Alexander was commissioned in a [[Militia (United Kingdom)|Militia]] battalion of the [[Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own)]], and in October 1900 took up a commission in a regular battalion of that regiment. Promotion to [[Lieutenant (British Army and Royal Marines)|lieutenant]] followed on 22 January 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27442 |page=3900 |date=13 June 1902}}</ref>

During 1902 he visited the [[Gold Coast Colony]], where he made an ornithological survey of that colony, and in September that year he left for the [[Bonin Islands]] to investigate their avifauna.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=25 September 1902 |page=7 |issue=36882}}</ref>

== African expedition ==
Lieutenant Alexander was a member of an expedition which travelled across [[Africa]] from the [[Niger River|Niger]] to the [[Nile]], exploring the [[Chad Basin]]. Alexander was accompanied by his brother Claud, Captain G. B. Gosling and Portuguese collector José Lopes. In February 1904 they set off from the mouth of the Niger, travelling upriver to [[Lokoja]]. Claud died in October of [[enteric fever]] after making a survey of the Murchison Range. Boyd and Gosling explored the area around [[Lake Chad]]. Gosling died in June 1906 at [[Niangara]] of [[blackwater fever]]. Boyd then followed the [[Kibali River]], reaching the Nile late in the year and returning to England in February 1907. Alexander's account ''From the Niger to the Nile'' was published later that year. In 1908 he was awarded the [[Founder's Medal]] of the [[Royal Geographical Society]] "for his three years' journey across Africa from the Niger to the Nile."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Forbes |first=Edgar Allen |date=April 1908 |title=Across Central Africa By Boat: The Alexander-Gosling Expedition Through The Heart of the Sudan |journal=[[World's Work|The World's Work: A History of Our Time]] |volume=XV |pages=10080–10090 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hKPvxXgBN1oC&pg=PA10080}}</ref>

He described [[Willcocks's honeyguide]] on the basis of a specimen obtained on his 1901 expedition along the [[Volta river]]. His enthusiasm for Lake Chad was such that he and his twin brother Robert had a miniature replica of Lake Chad made alongside their family home, The Swifts, at Cranbrook.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ogilvie-Grant|first=W R|title=Boyd Alexander and his ornithological work|journal=Ibis|volume=52|issue=4|year=1910|pages=716–729|url=https://archive.org/stream/ibis49brit#page/716/mode/2up | doi = 10.1111/j.1474-919X.1910.tb07928.x}}</ref>

Alexander and Lopes sailed back to Africa in 1909. They visited Claud's grave at Maifoni in [[Borno Emirate|Bornu]] and then continued to [[Wadai Empire|Wadai]]. Boyd was killed in a dispute with locals near Nyeri, {{Convert | 70 | mi}} north of [[Abéché]], the capital of Wadai. His body was recovered by French soldiers and buried next to his brother in Maifoni.<ref name="BA">{{cite ODNB|last=Howarth|first=O. J. R.|date=2004|title=Alexander, Boyd (1873–1910)|id=30369|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30369}}</ref> Shortly before he departed on the expedition he had become engaged to [[Olive Temple|Olive MacLeod]]; she travelled to visit his remote grave.<ref name=":1">{{cite ODNB|last=Alderman|first=C. J. F.|date=2004|title=Temple [née MacLeod], Olive Susan Miranda (1880–1936), traveller and author|id=63622}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
At [[St Dunstan's Church, Cranbrook]], there is an alabaster memorial to Boyd and Claud Alexander by [[William Robert Colton]].<ref>[http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/conMemorial.16224/fromUkniwmSearch/1 ''UK National Inventory of War Memorials: Boyd and Claud Alexander.''] Ukniwm.org.uk Retrieved 4 July 2012.</ref>

Alexander's medals are in the [[Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Founder's Gold Medal |url=https://rgjmuseum.co.uk/object-archive-item/rgs-gold-medal/ |website=The Royal Green Jackets (Rifles) Museum Winchester |access-date=30 November 2022}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[:Category:Taxa named by Boyd Alexander]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Joan Alexander, ''Whom the Gods Love: Boyd Alexander's Expedition from the Niger to the Nile 1904-7, and His Last Journey '' (Heinemann, 1977) {{ISBN|978-0-43401-814-7}}

==External links ==
{{wikisource|Alexander, Boyd (DNB12)}}
*{{Commons category-inline}}
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=Boyd Alexander|sopt=t}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Boyd}}
[[Category:1873 births]]
[[Category:Rifle Brigade officers]]
[[Category:English explorers]]
[[Category:British explorers of Africa]]
[[Category:English ornithologists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Zoological Society of London]]
[[Category:Alexander family (British aristocracy)|Boyd]]
[[Category:English twins]]
[[Category:1910 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Radley College]]

Boyd Alexander - Revision history

imported>JJMC89 bot III: Removing :Category:1910 murders in Africa per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2025 January 15#Crimes in Africa between 1900–1949