Admiral Sir Albert Hastings Markham KCB (11 November 1841 – 28 October 1918) was a British explorer, author, and officer in the Royal Navy.

At age thirteen, Albert was sent to London to live with his aunt, the wife of his uncle David Markham (Canon of Windsor from 1827 to 1853), at 4 Onslow Square.

[4] Markham's father was short of money for his education and had for some time tried to find a naval officer willing to sponsor Albert for admission to the navy.

He only succeeded in doing so after Albert had passed the normal entry age of fourteen, but by good luck the admiralty at that time had decided to experiment with accepting older cadets.

His aunt's son Clements Markham, who was eleven years older than Albert, had also joined the navy before leaving to become a geographer and explorer.

He did not smoke, allowing that a gentleman might have an occasional cigar, but believing that cigarettes were for effeminate weaklings and that a black pipe ruined mind and body.

He was, however, impressed by the wild grandeur and wildlife of the Mississippi Valley and was invited to hunt with General Mackenzie in Indian territory.

Markham had no great conviction for a naval career, but accepted the constraints it placed upon him in return for the opportunities it presented to further his other interests.

[9] His brother John was also in Hong Kong, where he was suffering food poisoning from arsenic added to flour by local Chinese.

In 1864, he returned to Britain where he took naval exams and stayed with Clements and his wife Minna, at what was to be his only permanent home in England for 30 years.

There was plenty of time for leave and Markham visited Turkey, Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece and the Aegean islands.

[11] In 1868, Markham was appointed first lieutenant of HMS Blanche on the Australia Station where he helped suppress "blackbirding", the illegal trading of slaves between Queensland and the South Sea Islands.

A bishop and three others were murdered in one incident, and Markham led a party to Nukapu to exact revenge, destroying a local village.

Although Markham's actions were supposedly fuelled by his righteous indignation at an attack upon churchmen, he was criticised in parliament and the press for overreacting.

The Victoria verdict noted that it was difficult to condemn an officer for obeying an explicit command, but regrettable that Markham had accepted the order without query.

[22] On 1 November 1901, he was made Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, making him responsible for the defence of the port of London and of merchant ships along the East coast of Britain.

While performing his share of whaling duties, which he would later write about, he also kept detailed notes on the ice conditions and wrote a report suggesting the route for use with steam vessels.

Despite suffering from scurvy and being poorly clothed, he led a sledge-party to reach the highest latitude ever attained at the time (83°20′26″ N), a record that stood for 20 years.

In 1879, he accompanied Sir Henry Gore Booth aboard the Isbjörn to Novaya Zemlya, a remote island in northern Russia.

He served for many years on the Council of the Royal Geographical Society along with his cousin Sir Clements Markham, whose biography he would later write.