William Desborough Cooley

William Desborough Cooley (c. 1795 – 1883) was an Irish geographer. Discoveries by European explorers gradually showed that a number of his theories about Central Africa, though strongly held, were incorrect. In other controversies his position is now considered to have had some justification. His major contributions are now seen as relating to source criticism of historical records, the understanding of West Africa, and as a perceptive historian of globalisation.

Life Cooley was born in Dublin, the son of William Cooley, a barrister, and grandson of Thomas Cooley the architect.

After the Douville incident, Cooley became an influential figure for a time in the RGS. He proposed, working with William Fitzwilliam Owen, a naval expedition to East Africa. One set off under Captain James Alexander, but on calling at the Cape of Good Hope became involved in the Sixth Xhosa War, was diverted to South-west Africa, and proved financially burdensome for the RGS. Cooley's concrete plans for exploration never came to fruition. He also quarrelled with Alexander Maconochie, secretary of the RGS, and undermined his position there. His main achievement in the learned world was the foundation in 1846 of the Hakluyt Society.

In 1852 Cooley published Inner Africa laid open, an attempt to trace the major lines of communication across the continent south of the Equator. In this work, relying based on Portuguese and African sources, he maintained that there existed just one great lake in Central Africa, and that the snowy mountains reported by Johann Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann were myths. Dr. Livingstone and the Royal Geographical Society, London 1874. Physical Geography, or the Terraqueous Globe and its Phenomena, London 1876.