Alexander Gordon Laing

Alexander Gordon Laing
Journalist and explorer
Born	(1794-12-27)27 December 1794 Edinburgh, Scotland, Great Britain
Died	26 September 1826(1826-09-26) (aged 32) Araouane, Pashalik of Timbuktu
Alma mater	Edinburgh University

Major Alexander Gordon Laing (27 December 1794 – 26 September 1826) was a British explorer and the first European to reach Timbuktu via the north/south route.

Laing was born in Edinburgh late in 1794. He was educated by his father, William Laing, a private teacher of classics, and at Edinburgh University. In 1811 he went to Barbados as clerk to his maternal uncle Colonel Gabriel Gordon. Through General Sir George Beckwith, governor of Barbados, he obtained an Ensigncy in the York Light Infantry Volunteers in 1813. He was promoted Lieutenant without purchase in 1815 and transferred to the 2nd West India Regiment after his former regiment was disbanded in 1817. In 1822 he transferred into the Royal African Colonial Corps as a Captain. In that year, while with his regiment at Sierra Leone, he was sent by the governor Sir Charles MacCarthy, to the Mandingo country, with the double object of opening up commerce and endeavouring to abolish the slave trade in that region. Later in the same year Laing visited Falaba, the capital of the Solimana country, and ascertained the source of the Rokel. He endeavoured to reach the source of the Niger, but was stopped by the natives. He was, however enabled to fix it with approximate accuracy. In 1824 he was granted the local rank of Major in Africa only. He took an active part in the Ashanti War of 1823-24, and was sent home with the despatches containing the news of the death in action of Sir Charles MacCarthy. While in England in 1824, Laing prepared a narrative of his journeys, which was published in 1825 and entitled Travels in the Timannee, Kooranko and Soolima Countries, in Western Africa.