Allen Francis Gardiner (1794–1851)

Naval officer and missionary. Entered the navy in 1810; commander, 1826. Founded a missionary station at Port Natal, South Africa, 1834. Worked in Chile among the Araucana (Mapuche) people, 1838–43. Attempted to establish a Patagonian mission in 1844, but returned to England in 1845. A second attempt to establish a mission ended in disaster, when he and his party died of starvation after being stranded on Picton Island in 1851.