Joseph Thomson (14 February 1858 – 2 August 1895) was a British geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa.

Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any native nor losing any of his men to violence.

He developed a keen amateur interest in geology and botany, which eventually led to his formal education at the University of Edinburgh, studying under Archibald Geikie and Thomas Henry Huxley.

Part of his crew included James Chuma, who also worked closely and assisted the Scottish explorer David Livingstone.

In 1883, he embarked on another Royal Geographical Society expedition, this time to explore a route from the eastern coast of Africa to the northern shores of Lake Victoria.

[4] He recovered in time to give an account of his experiences at a meeting in November 1884 of the Royal Geographical Society, which awarded him their Founder's Medal the following year.

In 1885, Thomson was employed by the National African Company to forestall and hinder German influence in the vicinity of the Niger River, but he returned the following year to the UK to lecture, disillusioned that no further opportunities existed for large-scale exploration in the continent.

In 1890, Cecil Rhodes employed Thomson to explore north of the Zambezi, conclude treaties and gain mining concessions from tribal chiefs on behalf of his British South Africa Company, which had been chartered by the British government to claim the territory known as Zambezia (later Rhodesia, modern day Zimbabwe and Zambia) as far north as the African Great Lakes.