Markham began his career as a Royal Navy cadet and midshipman, during which time he went to the Arctic with HMS Assistance in one of the many searches for Franklin's lost expedition.

He had strong and determined ideas about how the National Antarctic Expedition should be organised, and fought hard to ensure that it was run primarily as a naval enterprise, under Scott's command.

Reportedly an apt pupil, he showed particular interest in geology and astronomy, and from an early age he wrote prolifically, an activity which filled much of his spare time.

The ship reached the Chilean port of Valparaíso, the headquarters of the Pacific station on 15 December 1844, after a cruise that incorporated visits to Rio de Janeiro and the Falkland Islands, and a stormy passage in the Southern Ocean.

[9] After a few weeks' respite in Valparaiso, Collingwood sailed again, this time for Callao, the main port on the Peruvian coast, giving Markham his first experience of a country that would figure prominently in his later career.

[10] During the next two years Collingwood cruised in the Pacific, visiting the Sandwich Islands, Mexico, and Tahiti, where Markham attempted to assist the nationalist rebels against their French governor.

The expedition was last seen on 29 July, by whalers in the northern waters of Baffin Bay, moored to an ice floe and waiting for the chance to sail westward.

On 23 August, Ommanney sighted a cairn, and discovered packing materials nearby which bore the name of "Goldner", Franklin's canned meat supplier.

[20] He did much reading, mainly Arctic history and classical literature, and thought about a possible return visit to Peru, a country which had captivated him during the Collingwood voyage.

Markham played a full part in these activities,[21] which produced no further evidence of Franklin, but led to the mapping of hundreds of miles of previously uncharted coast.

During the course of an excursion to nearby towns and ruins he reached the area of San Miguel, La Mar, Ayacucho, where he first learned of the properties of the cinchona plant, a source of quinine, cultivated in that vicinity.

[34] Markham and his team, which included the botanist Richard Spruce and his future brother-in-law, the New Zealander Charles Bowen,[35] left England for Peru in December 1859, arriving in Lima late in January 1860.

There was danger in their enterprise; Peru and Bolivia were on the verge of war, and Markham's party soon experienced the hostility of Peruvian interests anxious to protect their control over the cinchona trade.

[40] After the death of his father in 1853 Markham needed paid employment, and in December 1853 secured a junior clerkship in the Legacy Duty Office of the Inland Revenue at a salary of £90 per annum (around £6,000 in 2008).

Markham was attached to the force's headquarters staff, with responsibility for general survey work and in particular the selection of the route to Magdala, the king's mountain stronghold.

When in July 1893, the issue was put to a special general meeting, the proposal to admit women was narrowly defeated despite an overwhelming postal ballot in favour.

[5] In a letter written many years later, Markham said that on the assumption of the presidency he had felt the need, after the dispute over women, to "restore the Society's good name" by the adoption of some great enterprise.

[66] Markham's tenacity finally won the day when in 1900 he secured the appointment of his protégé Robert Falcon Scott, by then a torpedo lieutenant on HMS Majestic, as the expedition's overall commander.

[77] Markham was criticised in official quarters for privately sanctioning a second season in the Antarctic, contrary to the original plan, and then being unable to raise funds for the expedition's relief in 1904.

"[80] When news of the expedition's achievement of a new Farthest South latitude of 88°23' reached him, Markham publicly signified his intention to propose Shackleton for the RGS Patron's Medal.

[80] However, Markham had second thoughts, and was soon writing to the current RGS president, Leonard Darwin, to express disbelief about Shackleton's claimed latitudes, repeating these doubts to Scott.

"[89] In one of the last letters written from his final camp, days from death, Scott wrote: "Tell Sir Clements I thought much of him, and never regretted his putting me in command of the 'Discovery'.

He wrote biographies of the English kings Edward IV and Richard III, and of his old naval friend Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock; he also kept up his editing and translating work.

[5] Markham continued to travel extensively in Europe, and in 1906 cruised with the Mediterranean squadron, where Scott was acting as flag captain to Rear Admiral George Egerton.

In conferring this latter degree, the Chancellor referred to Markham as "a veteran in the service of mankind", and recalled that he had been "for sixty years the inspiration of English geographical science.

In 1912, when Roald Amundsen, conqueror of the South Pole, was invited by RGS president Leonard Darwin to dine with the Society, Markham resigned his council seat in protest.

"[99] Markham's writings on naval history have been criticised by modern scholars due to his nationalistic exaggeration of English sailors' achievements in the Age of Discoveries.

[102] Mill's measured opinion, that Markham was "an enthusiast rather than a scholar", has been asserted as a fair summary of his strengths and weaknesses, and as the basis for his influence on the discipline of geography in the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

[110][111] Markham was portrayed by the character actor Geoffrey Chater in the BBC TV miniseries Shackleton in 1983,[112] and by Alexander Knox in the Central Television serial The Last Place on Earth in 1985.

In addition to papers and reports for the Royal Geographical Society and other learned bodies, Markham wrote histories, biographies and travel accounts, many as full-length books.