Major Robert Ernest Cheesman CBE (1878, Ashford, Kent[1] – 13 February 1962) was an English military officer, explorer, ornithologist and author.
He is noted for being one of the first to map the Arabian coast and credited with the discovery of a rodent, named after him, Cheesman's gerbil (Gerbillus cheesmani).
In 1923, during a journey into the Arabian Peninsula, Cheesman collected over 300 specimens from the Al-Ahsa Oasis, several of them previously unknown to science.
In 1936 he was awarded the Patron's Medal of the society for his explorations and surveys of the Blue Nile and Lake Tana.
Another sister was Edith Cheesman, a notable artist who exhibited and published a series of sketches and paintings of Iraq.