Sir John Kirk, was a Scottish physician, naturalist, companion to explorer David Livingstone, and British administrator in Zanzibar, where he was instrumental in ending the slave trade in that country.
From 1858 to 1864 Kirk accompanied the explorer Dr David Livingstone on the Second Zambezi Expedition as a botanist and experienced his work to end the East African slave trade. He visited the Zomba Plateau and Lake Chilwa in present-day Malawi, and in September 1859 he accompanied Livingstone up the Shire River to Lake Malawi, which they explored by boat. He found Livingstone an inept leader and in 1862 wrote I can come to no other conclusion than that Dr. Livingstone is out of his mind and a most unsafe leader". The Kirk Range, which lies west of the Shire River and forms part of the Malawi-Mozambique border, is named after Kirk. In 1866, Livingstone began his next and final expedition, to find the source of the Nile, from Zanzibar. From Livingstone’s subsequent correspondence during the expedition it seems that Kirk remained in Zanzibar and did not continue with the rest of the party. After Livingstone’s death in 1873, Kirk pledged to continue his work to end the East African slave trade.
Diplomat
From his appointment in 1865 the British Consul in Zanzibar, Henry Adrian Churchill worked on the abolition of the slave trade on the island, however his heavy workload and the adverse climate took a toll on his health in 1869 and Kirk, who was his physician and Vice Consul, advised him to leave for London for the sake of his health. Churchill left in December 1870 leaving Kirk to undertake his duties as acting Consul. Kirk continued Churchill's work on the slave trade and in June 1873 he received simultaneous contradictory instructions from London on the Zanzibar slave trade, one to issue an ultimatum to Sultan Bargash, under threat of blockade that the slave trade should be stopped and the slave market closed, and the other not to enforce a blockade which might be taken as an act of war pushing Zanzibar towards French protection. Kirk only showed the first instruction to Barghash, who capitulated within two weeks. In August 1873 he was appointed British Consul in Zanzibar and in 1875 was also appointed Consul in the Comoro Islands, and in 1881 was appointed Consul general in Zanzibar. For years he negotiated with Sultan Barghash, gaining his confidence and promising to help enrich the East African domain through legitimate commerce. By 1885 the region was larger and more profitable. He was British Minister Plenipotentiary at the 1890 Slave Act Conference in Brussels.
Other interests
Photography
Kirk photographed many scenes and people during his travels in East Africa. Examples include , , and .
Gossypioides kirkii, a new species of cotton from East Tropical Africa, , an evergreen shrub, and Uapaca kirkiana, a miombo woodland tree of southern Africa, were named after him.
Zoology
He studied the wildlife in East Africa and published many papers. He collected many birds from Zanzibar and East Africa. In 1892, he was credited with the third largest elephant tusk among animal trophy hunters. He collected many specimens of Lake Malawi fish on the Zambezi expedition.
Eponyms
According to sources, Kirk first drew zoologists' attention to the Zanzibar red colobus, which is also commonly known as Kirk's red colobus. This species, Procolobus kirkii, which is endemic to Zanzibar, is named after him. Also, a species of African lizard, Agama kirkii, is named in his honour, as is a species of African amphibian, Kirk's caecilian and the fish Kirk's blenny. The Lake Malawi Cichlid fish Protomelas kirkii is named after Kirk.
Awards and decorations
, 1879
, 1881
Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for unremitting services to Geography, as a naturalist, as second-in-command to Dr. Livingstone, and as H.M. Consul-General at Zanzibar, 1882
