James Richardson

James Richardson was a British explorer and travel writer best known for his journeys across the Sahara and into Central Africa. Sources on the edition history of his work identify him as James Richardson (1806–1851), and his best-known book, Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa, was published after his death in 1853.

He led a British-backed expedition from Tripoli across the Sahara in 1850, traveling with Adolf Overweg and, for part of the wider mission, Heinrich Barth. The expedition aimed to build commercial relations in Central Africa, and Richardson became known for the detailed observations he recorded along the way.

He died in March 1851 near Kukawa in Bornu before the mission was completed. Even so, his writings remained important, both as travel literature and as a record of one of the major British expeditions into the region in the mid-19th century.