John King (explorer)

John King (* December 5, 1838 or 1841 in County Tyrone, Ireland, † January 15, 1872, St. Kilda, Australia) was a soldier and explorer. He took part in the expedition of Burke and Wills in Australia, which ended in a fiasco.

Early life

John King was the son of Henry King, a soldier of the Highlander. He attended the Hibernian School in Dublin and joined the British Army at the age of 14 years. He was transferred to India. There he met in 1859 George James Landells, the camels for the Burke - Wills Expedition chose in India. Landells recruited King, who then left the army.

Expedition of Burke and Wills

The Burke - Wills Expedition was launched on August 20, 1860 in Melbourne in search of a land route to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The expedition reached in early October Menindee where Landells not accompanied the expedition. King took over his job as a camel driver to Cooper Creek, where they arrived on 11 November and there built up the Camp LXV. A small group of Robert O'Hara Burke, William John Wills, John King and Charley Gray made ​​his way to the Gulf of Carpentaria, the rest of the crew remained on Cooper Creek. She made the vault and waited 18 weeks for the return of the four members of the expedition.

The four men broke on 16 December 1860 with six camels and a horse and reached on 11 February 1861 Flinders River. There she gave, only eleven miles from their destination, on and turned back. On their way back to Cooper Creek they lost four camels and horses. On April 17, Gray died. When they in the evening at 7.30 clock reached the camp LXV four days later, it was deserted. The remaining team had nine hours before leaving the camp.

With the weakened camels they could not catch up with the team in the position and in the depot little food was left. Therefore, the three explorers decided to go to Mount Hopeless, which was about 240 km away. In the arid terrain they wandered about two months and in June died Wills. Burke and King went even further for another two days until Burke died from exhaustion. King stayed two days at the corpse, until he returned to the downstream Breerily waterhole.

The rescue expedition led by Alfred William Howitt found King on September 15, living with the Aborigines of Yandruwandha to whom he owed ​​his life.

Return

The Return of King on November 29, 1861 in Melbourne met with great interest and he was hailed as a hero. A Royal Commission was appointed to investigate the failure. She noted that the expedition was poorly run and due to unfortunate circumstances ended in fiasco. A debt of king could not be found. He received for his performance a golden clock and an annuity of £ 180 a year.

John King was present in Melbourne four years after the expedition at the unveiling of the Burke and Wills statue on April 21, 1865. Otherwise, he lived quietly with his sister until he married the widow Mary Richmond on August 22, 1871. King participated in any further expedition or public event. He died in 1872 at the age of 33 years of tuberculosis and was buried at the Central Cemetery of Melbourne.