Roy Bridges is a noted historian of exploration and travel with a focus on Africa, its imperial and missionary history. He is an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...

.
He began his university career at Makerere University

Makerere University

Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...

 but spent most of his career at the University of Aberdeen where with John D. Hargreaves

John D. Hargreaves

John D. Hargreaves was the Burnett-Fletcher Professor of History at the University of Aberdeen. He is noted for his work on the history of Africa; its colonisation and de-colonistation...

 he helped with the development there of African studies. Between 2002 to 2008 he was the President of the Hakluyt Society

Hakluyt Society

Founded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society is a registered charity based in London, England, which seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material...

. He is the author of many books and research papers including studies of the missionary Johann Krapf

Johann Ludwig Krapf

Johann Ludwig Krapf was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro...

, the explorer John Speke

John Hanning Speke

John Hanning Speke was an officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile.-Life:...

 and has written what has been described as "the definitive account" of the life of Jacob Wainwright, who recorded an account return of David Livingstone

David Livingstone

David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...

's body to Britain.

Selected Publications

• Bridges, Roy and Hair, Paul Edward Hedley (1996) Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth: Studies in the History of the Hakluyt Society, 1846-1996 (Hakluyt Society Second No. 183. )
• Bridges, Roy (1999) Imperialism, Decolonization and Africa: Studies Presented to John Hargreaves (Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series) Basingstoke : Macmillan
• Bridges, Roy (1997) John D. Hargreaves : an academic memoir and bibliography, Dept. of History
• Bridges, Roy ed (2007) Jacob Wainwright's Diary of the Transportation of Dr Livingstone's Body to the Coast, May 1873 to February 1874. in Four Travel Journals / The Americas, Antarctica and Africa / 1775-1874. Edited by Herbert K. Beals, R. J. Campbell, Ann Savours, Anita McConnell & Roy Bridges. 2007, pp. x + 404, 50 plates, 8 maps. The annotated texts of four previously unpublished travel journals, treated separately with biographical and historical introductions, bibliographies and indexes.Ashgate Pub. Limited