Cameron, VERNEY LOVETT, African explorer, was born at Radipole, near Weymouth, 1st July 1844. He entered the navy in 1857, and served in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, and the Red
Sea, and on the east coast of Africa, taking part in the Abyssinian expedition, and in the suppression of the slave-trade. In 1872 he was appointed to the command of an east-coast expedition to relieve Livingstone, and starting from Bagamoyo in March 1873, in August at Unyanyembe he met Livingstone's followers bearing his remains to the coast. After making arrangements for their safe arrival, he proceeded to Ujiji, where he found some of Livingstone's papers and a map, which he forwarded to Zanzibar. He then made a survey of Lake Tanganyika, which he found to be disconnected with the Nile system. In the belief that the Lualaba was the upper waters of the Congo, he resolved to follow its course to the west coast; but owing to the hostile interposition of the native chiefs, was prevented from verifying a conviction, the correctness of which was demonstrated by Stanley in 1877. Taking a more southerly route, he reached the Portuguese settlement of Benguela, on the west coast, 7th November 1875, whence he returned to England. A.C.B. and Commander, in 1878 he explored the route for a Constantinople-Bagdad railway to India; and in 1882, with Sir Richard Burton, he visited the Gold Coast. He died, through a hunting accident, at Leighton Buzzard, 26th March 1894. Among his works are Across Africa (1877), Our Future Highway to India (1880), and several boys' books.