Walter Oudney [SEP] date of birth
Walter Oudney
Walter Oudney (1790 – 12 January 1824) was a Scottish physician, budding naturalist and briefly African explorer.
Biography.
He received a medical doctorate at Edinburgh in 1817. In 1819 he became a member of the Wernerian Natural History Society alongside his friend and colleague James Robinson Scott.
Oudney has been described as quiet, self-effacing, and a short man with a weak constitution particularly unsuited to the rigors of African exploration. He was also brave and resolute.
Bornu Mission.
Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Walter Oudney, who aroused his interest in African travel.
African exploration.
Lieutenant G. F. Lyon having returned from an unsuccessful attempt to reach Bornu from Tripoli, the British government determined on a second expedition to that country. Walter Oudney was appointed by Lord Bathurst, then colonial secretary, to proceed to Bornu as consul, accompanied by Hugh Clapperton. From Tripoli, early in 1822, they set out southward to Murzuk, where they were later joined by Major Dixon Denham,