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Markham entered the Navy in 1856 and served for eight years on the China Station in the CAMILLA, NIGER, RETRIBUTION, IMPERIEUSE, COROMANDEL and CENTAUR.He was promoted to lieutenant in 1862 and served in the VICTORIA in the Mediterranean from 1864 to 1867 and in the BLANCHE on the Australian Station from 1868 to 1871. He was then acting commander of the ROSARIO, 1871 to 1872, during a voyage to the New Hebrides in connection with the suppression of the South Seas labour trade. He became a commander in 1872 and, while on leave in 1873, sailed in the whaler ARCTIC to Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. From 1873 to 1874 he served in the SULTAN, Channel Squadron. Markham was commander of the ALERT under Sir George Nares during the British Arctic expedition of 1875 to 1876. His sledging party reached remained a record until 1895. 1879 he accompanied Sir Henry Gore-Booth (1800-1881) on a cruise to Novaya Zemlya. He was Captain of the TRIUMPH, flagship on the Pacific Station, 1879 to 1882, and Captain of VERNON, 1883 to 1886. In 1885 he was senior officer on board the HECLA torpedo depot ship, when she collided with the schooner CHEERFUL. Whilst on leave in 1886 Markham made a survey of Hudson Bay and Strait for the proposed Hudson Bay Railway Company. From 1886 to 1889 he was Commodore of the Training Squadron. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1891 and from 1892 to 1894 was second-in-command in the Mediterranean. In 1893, off the Syrian coast, Markham's flagship the CAMPERDOWN collided with the fleet flagship, the VICTORIA, which sank with great loss of life. The courts-martial exonerated Markham but he was later censured in an Admiralty minute. He became vice-admiral in 1897 and served on the Joint Antarctic Committee and on the Executive Committee for Scott's first Antarctic expedition of 1901 to 1904 in the DISCOVERY. He was Commander-in-Chief at the NORE, 1901 to 1904, knighted in 1903 and retired in 1906. Markham combined his naval career with a considerable literary output, which included The cruise of the Rosario (London, 1873), The great frozen sea (London, 1878) (on the British Arctic expedition), a Life of Sir John Franklin, (London, 1889) and a Life of Sir Clements R. Markham (London, 1917). See M.E. and F.A. Markham, The Life of Sir Albert Hastings Markham (Cambridge, 1927).