Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk was a Holy Roman Empire-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for the United Kingdom in the Dominican Republic and Thailand.

British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.