3-056-388 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Samuel Baker at the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, 1873. 'The lecture which Sir Samuel Baker delivered...was honoured with the presence of [his] Royal Highness the Prince of Wales...The audience numbered about 1500 ladies and gentlemen, in the lecture-theatre of... the London University...The benches were crowded, and there was a crush to get in at the doors...Sir Samuel commenced by giving an account of the mission he undertook, from the Khedive or Viceroy of Egypt, to go up the Nile with a military force and put a stop to the practices of kidnapping and slave-trading...The Prince [said that] Sir Samuel...had not only maintained his high character as a traveller, a sportsman, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, but as a philanthropist he had performed a great work for the benefit of human kind. This well-merited eulogy was received with hearty cheers. Sir Bartle Frere then offered his own congratulations and those of the society to Sir Samuel and Lady Baker, alluding to the high courage and true womanly affection she had displayed as the companion of her husband through all his perilous and laborious adventures...the company gave three hearty cheers for his wife as well as for himself'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.