St Vincent Whitshed Erskine (1846 - 1918), Surveyor General of South Africa, was an early explorer in Gazaland and was the first European to travel down the length of the Limpopo river to its mouth.
St Vincent Erskine died from the Spanish flu on 8 July 1918 aged 72 years and is buried in the Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town.
St Vincent Erskine carried out a number of exploratory journeys in Southern Africa between 1868 and 1875 from Natal northwards into Gazaland and down to the mouth of the River Limpopo.
Gazaland (modern day Mozambique and Zimbabwe extending northward from the Komati River at Delagoa Bay in Mozambique's Maputo Province to the Pungwe River in central Mozambique) records - “Probably the first European to penetrate any distance inland from the Sofala coast since the Portuguese gold-seekers of the 16th century was St. Vincent W. Erskine, who explored the region between the Limpopo and Pungwe (1868-1875).” St Vincent Erskine's four journeys are reported in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, London: Following his exploratory journeys St Vincent Erskine worked as a surveyor in Natal, the Transvaal and Cape Province.
Material about St Vincent Erskine is also held by the National Archives of South Africa which include claims for payment of the work; applications to practice as a land surveyor; to be a magistrate at Inanda Division; applications by Alice Erskine for assistance in the education of her children; references to land transactions and to courts cases involving St Vincent etc.