Richard Chancellor

Richard Chancellor (c. 1521–1556) was a Bristol-born navigator who opened England's trade with Russia. In 1553 he sailed as second-in-command of Hugh Willoughby's expedition in search of a north-east passage to Asia. Separated by storms, his ship reached the White Sea, and he travelled by sleigh to Moscow, where Tsar Ivan IV granted English merchants trading privileges.

Chancellor returned in 1554 and helped form the Muscovy Company, revisiting Russia in 1555. Sailing home with Russia's first ambassador to England, he was drowned when his ship was wrecked off the Scottish coast on 10 November 1556.