Harold Silver (b.1928) has written researched and written extensively on educational history and policy. He and his wife, Pamela, have also collaborated on research projects and co-authored articles, reports and books. Between 1980 and 1983 Harold Silver, then Principal of Bulmershe College Reading, and Pamela Silver undertook a research project funded by the Social Science Research Council entitled 'British and American educational strategies against poverty in the 1960s and 1970s'. This work was expanded in subsequent years and the results were eventually published as An Educational War on Poverty: American and British Policy-making, 1960-1980 (Cambridge University Press, 1991). This book analysed the role of education in the American 'war on poverty' from 1964, and in Britain from the appointment of the Plowden Committee on primary schools. It examined attempts in the two countries to use education to break the 'cycle of disadvantage'. During the course of their research, the Silvers not only drew on a large number of written sources, but also conducted taped interviews with a wide range of individuals, such as educationists and policy-makers, in both the United States and Britain.
After a career in teaching, historical research, and lecturing, Sophia Weitzman (1896-1965) was appointed Lecturer in History at the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1939, and was Reader in Education from 1956 until her retirement in 1963. In the 1940s she began work on the educational volume of the official history of World War Two, which was never completed.
Founded in 1921 as the New Education Fellowship by a small group of progressive educationists and liberal thinkers who were heavily involved with the British Theosophical Society and the Theosophical Educational Trust, this organisation grew into a national and then international organisation, with local sections in many countries worldwide, and was re-named the World Education Fellowship in 1966. Although the Fellowship has embraced a wide range of individual philosophies, the central focus has been on child-centred education, social reform through education, democracy, world citizenship, international understanding and the promulgation of world peace. Many famous thinkers and educationists have been involved with the Fellowship and it has forged close links with academic institutions, including the Institute of Education, University of London, and with international organisations, especially UNESCO. An English Section of the Fellowship was founded in 1927 and has included amongst its prominent members, Sir Michael Sadler, Sir Percy Nunn, Sir Fred Clarke, R.H. Tawney and J.A. Lauwerys. The English Section was also instrumental in the establishment of the Home and School Council and the English Association of New Schools.
Explored the Mustagh Pass in the Karakoram Himalayas with E Honigmann, 1903; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1907-1959.
Alexander Douglas Mitchell Carruthers was born in London on 4 October 1882; educated at Haileybury College and Trinity College, Cambridge; worked as secretary to a number of people active at the Royal Geographical Society, and underwent training in land survey work, also becoming an expert taxidermist. He took part in the British Museum expedition to Ruwenzori and the Congo, 1905-1906 and sent home specimens of birds and mammals. He later joined John H Miller and Morgan Philips Price in an expedition through the desert of Outer Mongolia, publishing two volumes on Unknown Mongolia in 1913.
During the First World War he was employed mainly at the War Office compiling maps of the Middle East; his later career consisted largely of map making and working with explorers and travellers. Carruthers was awarded the Gill memorial, 1910 and the patron's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1912, which he was to serve as honorary secretary in 1916-1921 and Fellow in 1909-1962 and was awarded the Sykes medal of the Royal Central Asian Society in 1956. Carruthers died in the Royal Free Hospital, Islington, on 23 May 1962.
Arnold Danvers Power was a publisher with Hutchinsons and the London manager for Sir Isaac Pitman, he became a partner in W.H. Smith in 1911. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1918-1959.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1927-1932; travelled widely in South America.
Leo Austen was Assistant Resident Magistrate of the Western Division of Papua in the 1920s and served elsewhere in Papua during the 1930s. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1929-1938.
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The RGS has a board of trustees known as the Council, who are responsible for the Society's governance. The Council also has committees that consider matters of strategy and implementation relating to their specific areas of expertise and which advise the Council and Society staff. These committees change over the years. The committees at the time of writing are: Finance, Education, Expeditions and Fieldwork, Information Services, and Research and Higher Education.
Born in Berlin, 1769; educated, Freiberg Academy of Mines under the famous geologist A.G. Werner; hiked around Europe with George Forester, Captain James Cook's scientific illustrator from his second voyage; government mines inspector in Franconia, Prussia, 1792-1800; expedition with botanist Aime Bonpland in South America, 1800-1803; lived in France, 1804-1827; King of Prussia's advisor, 1827-; invited to make geographical explorations of Russia by the tsar: discovered permafrost and recommended that Russia establish weather observatories across the country which were set up in 1835; gave public lectures in Berlin, 1827-1828; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1856-1859, died, 1859.
Publications: Kosmos (1845)
Born, 1935; hydrographic surveyor in the Royal Navy; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1978-1984; after retiring from the Navy he wrote a number of books about the Caribbean.
Brother of Robert Lawrence Reid; worked for the Société internationale Forestière et Minière du Congo; mapped the northern Congo basin with his brothers A E H and Robert Reid, [1910-1911], published in the The Geographical Journal, Vol. 38, No. 6 (Dec, 1911), pp. 591-592; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 1910-1961.
Department of Surveys, Nyasaland; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1961-1987.
Born, 1861; educated, University of Christiania; went to Greenland Sea, 1882; curator in Natural History Museum, Bergen; went across Greenland, 1888-1889; Curator Museum of Comparative Anatomy, Christiania University; North Pole Expedition, in which he reached the highest latitude until then attained (86 deg. 14' m.), 1893-1896; Professor of Zoology, Christiania University; took an active part in the separation of Norway and Sweden, 1905; Minister for Norway at the Court of St James', 1906-1908; Nobel Peace Prize, 1921-1922; Professor of Oceanography, Christiania University, 1908-; Rector of St Andrews University, 1925-1930; died, 1930
Publications:
Across Greenland
Eskimo Life
Farthest North, 1897
The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896, Scientific Results
Norway and the Union with Sweden, 1905
Northern Mists, 1911
Through Siberia, 1914
Sporting Days in Wild Norway, 1925
Hunting and Adventure in the Arctic, 1925
Adventure, and other Papers, 1927
Armenia and the Near East, 1928
Through the Caucasus to the Volga, 1931
Born, 1852; educated, Charterhouse -1869; appointment in the Indian Telegraph Service, on the Perso-Baluch coast of the Persian Gulf, 1869-1876; explored the interior of Baluchistan, 1876; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1876-1903; Inspector General of Egyptian Telegraphs; surveying expedition in the Egyptian desert, 1887; commander of another expedition in the Egyptian desert, 1891; died, 1903.
In 1918 the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) put forward to the Secretary of State for India proposals for a preliminary expedition to Mount Everest. Initialy refused, the Tibetan Government finally gave permission for a British expedtion to proceed into Tibet in 1921. The RGS and the Alpine Club formed the Mount Everest Committee to co-ordinate and finance the 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition to Mount Everest, this included raising funds, selecting expedition personnel, buying stores and equipment, carrying out surveys, arranging transport and communication and organising publicity, lectures and filming and photographing of the expedition. The Mount Everest Committee oversaw the 1921, 1922, 1924, 1933, 1935 and 1938 expeditions to Everest.
In 1947 the Mount Everest Committee was renamed the Joint Himalayan Committee, again composed of members of the Alpine Club and the RGS. The Joint Himalayan Committee was responsible for organising and financing expeditions to Everest in 1951 and 1952 and the first ascent in 1953.
The Mount Everest Foundation was founded after the successful ascent of Everest in 1953, again a joint initiative between the RGS and the Alpine Club, it was initially financed from surplus funds and subsequent royalties of the 1953 expedition, the Foundation was established to encourage 'exploration of the mountain regions of the earth'. Since inception the MEF has dispensed almost £840,000 in grants. The majority go to small expeditions organised by adventurous young men and women. However the Foundation has also supported expeditions to the Earth's highest peaks, fine examples of which were first ascents of and new routes on Everest, Kangchenjunga, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Xixabangma, Nuptse, Kongur and the Ogre. In fifty years over 1,500 expeditions have been helped in this way.
In the early 1930s, the Norwegians claimed an area on the East Greenland coast (called Eirik Raudes Land by the Norwegians) as Norwegian territory. The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against Norway in 1933 and they subsequently abandoned their claims.
Expeditions in Persia and Afghanistan, 1828-1829; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1868-1873.
Born 1870, Edward Laidlaw Thomson was a Scot who was employed with the African Lakes Company on a new coffee plantation in [Malawi] c 1893-1897. Died, 1897.
Born, 1875; naval architect in the employment of Harland and Wolff, builders of the Titanic, and gave evidence in the inquiry into its loss, 1912; CBE, 1920; consulting naval architect, Argentine Navigation Company, 1926; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1926-1933; died, 1939.
Born, 1835; educated, Montgreenan House School, Ayrshire; articled pupil to T E Blackwell, civil engineer, and assisted the construction of the Kennet and Avon Canal; assistant engineer constructing a branch of the Grand Trunk Railway, Canada; expeditions to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, Amazon, Monte Video, Argentine, Chile, Patagonian coast, Peru, Bolivia and West Indian Islands; returned to England, 1870; ran a camp for schoolboys, 1892-1914; died, 1926.
Educated Harrow and RMA Woolwich. Commissioned in Royal Engineers, 1890. Survey of India 1897-1925. Served in the Somaliland Field Force (1903-1904) and in Mesopotamia (1916-1918). Retired 1925 and worked with Sudan Air Survey 1929-1930. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1919-1929.
Born, 1865; educated at the Oratory School, Edgbaston under Cardinal Newman, 1876-1883 and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1883-1884; commissioned in the 3rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards, 1884; a hunting accident in January left him with a permanent limp which interrupted his career, 1885; home service until 1899; seconded for service with the Chinese regiment of infantry recently formed at Weihaiwei, 1899; touring the provinces of north-east China, 1901; rejoined his battalion in South Africa for the campaigns in the Transvaal and Cape Colony, 1902; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1902-1923; Korea, 1903; temporary military attaché to the British minister at Seoul in Korea, 1904; as military attaché with the Japanese army he witnessed the Manchurian campaign, 1905; military attaché at Peking, 1905-1910; came back to Europe in 1909 and resigned his commission; returned to China and journeyed from Peking through Chihli (Zhili) and Shansi, across the Ordos to Ninghsia, 1910; spent nine months exploring and shooting in the Altai and T'ien Shan, 1911; visited the Kumbun and Labrang monasteries in south-western Kansu before moving south along the upper reaches of the Salween and Mekong rivers and crossing briefly into the Shan states in Burma, he then moved across country to Foochow (Fuzhou) and by steamer to Shanghai, 1912; rejoined the service, 1914; served in France with the 47th London division; commander of the 4th Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1915; commanded the 47th brigade of the 16th division, 1916-1917; commanded the 43rd brigade, 1918; joined General Knox's mission to Admiral Kolchak in Siberia, 1919; returned to China, 1920 to journey to Lhasa; died, 1923.
Born, 1909; educated Chiswick School of Art; Joined the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Drawing Office staff, 1926; Allied Photo Interpretation Unit, RAF, Second World War; RGS chief draughtsman, 1955-1974; RGS Gill Memorial award, 1959; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1971-1994; retired, 1974; died 1994.
George Wharton Marriott was born in Eton around 1843; he was agent to a rich landowner in Blakeney, Norfolk, on whose expense he travelled around the world. He later became private secretary to Lord Northcote and acted as agent for him in London while Lord Northcote was governer general of Australia. He died in 1921.
Born, 1905; grew up in the Lake District; tea planter near Darjeeling; joined Professor Dyhrenfurth's international expedition to Kangchenjunga as transport officer, 1930; attempted the summit of Jongsong Peak with Smythe; joined the 1933 Everest expedition; returned to England; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1944-1955; died, 1956.
Born, 1848; entered the Navy, 1862; served on HMS LONDON engaged in suppressing the slave trade on the East Coast of Africa, 1875-1879; qualified as interpreter in Swahili; British Consul at Mozambique, 1879; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1881-1925; explored interior of Mozambique, 1882-1885; returned to England, 1885; RGS Patron's Medal, 1885; Consul at Leghorn; Consul at Rouen; retired, 1899; died, 1925.
Born, 1799; one of the founders of the American Geographic Society; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1852-1874; died, 1874.
Born, 1854; educated at home, at private schools, and at University College, London; member of the Geological Society, 1873; life member of the British Association, 1876; published several papers on the geology, natural history, and botany of Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, 1874-1892; family brewery at Ashwell, -1882; called to the bar by the Inner Temple, 1885; chairman of the Cambridgeshire County Council, 1904-1919; gradually became interested in the study of cartography and established his reputation as one of the foremost authorities in Europe on cartography and allied subjects; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1924-1929; gold medal of the Brussels Geographical Society, 1929; died, 1929.
Born, 1907; educated Lancing College, Cambridge University; expedition to Edge Island (Edgøya), 1927; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1927-1932; RGS Cuthbert Peek Grant, 1928; expedition to Labrador, 1928-1929; British Arctic air route expedition, 1930-1931; RGS Founder's Medal, 1932; expedition to Greenland, 1932, where he died.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1937 onwards.
Born, 1851; educated New College, Oxford; Indian Civil Service, 1873; Assistant Collector, Midnapore; assistant to Sir William Wilson Hunter, Director-General of Statistics, 1875; Assistant Secretary, 1879; Under-Secretary to the Government of India in the Home Department, Imperial Secretariat, 1879; Govindpur, 1880, Hazaribagh, and Manbhum, 1884; compiled information on the castes and occupations of the people of Bengal, 1885; Acting Financial Secretary to the Government of India, 1898; Census Commissioner, 1899; Director of Ethnography for India, 1901; Home Secretary in Lord Curzon's administration, 1902; Permanent Secretary in the Judicial and Public Department at the India Office, 1910; died, 1911.
Publications: The Tribes and Castes of Bengal (1891-2)
Gazetteer of Sikhim: Introductory Chapter (1894)
The People of India (1908; 2nd edn 1915).
Born 1885; educated Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, 1904; Indian Civil Service; posted to the Punjab, 1908; civilian administrator, Mesopotamian expeditionary force, 1915; personal assistant to Percy Cox; head of a mission to Ibn Sa'ud, ruler of the Nejd in central Arabia, 1917; long leave in England; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1919-1960; RGS Gold Medallist - Founder's Medal, 1920; recalled to Baghdad to help with the administration of the new state of Iraq; British representative in Transjordan, 1921-1924; left public service, 1925; settled in Jiddah, founded a trading company, Sharqieh Ltd, and became a close friend and an unofficial adviser of Ibn Sa'ud; made a series of explorations, of which the greatest was his crossing of the Empty Quarter,1932; converted to Islam and assumed the name Saudis Sheikh Abdullah, 1930; stood as an anti-war candidate in a by-election in Hythe, 1939; arrested in Bombay, taken to England, and imprisoned briefly under wartime regulations, 1940; involved for a time with the Common Wealth party; returned to Arabia; after the death of Ibn Sa'ud in 1953 his outspoken criticisms of the extravagance and corruption under the new king led in 1955 to his exile in the Lebanese village of Ajaltun; died, 1960.
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). Since 1831 the Society has published a Journal, initially containing the principal papers read at the Society's evening meetings and abstracts of Geographical works published elsewhere: it is now a refereed academic publication. The journal has appeared under various titles: Journal of the RGS (JRGS) 1831-1880; Proceedings of the RGS (PRGS) 1857-1878; Proceedings of the RGS (New Series) (PRGS (NS)) 1879-1892; Supplementary Papers (1882-1893); and the Geographical Journal (GJ) 1893 onwards. At first edited by the Secretary of the Society, the preparation and editing of these journals is currently carried out by the Geographical Journal Office.
Born, 1820; educated at private schools in King's Lynn; apprenticed to a painter of heraldic arms on coach panels; began sketching marine subjects; sailed for Cape Town, where he practised his trade, 1842-1845; became a marine and portrait painter, 1845; official war artist to the British forces during the Cape Frontier War, 1851-1852; returned to England and worked for the Royal Geographical Society, 1853; joined Augustus Gregory's expedition to north-west Australia, 1855; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1857-1875; storekeeper and artist to David Livingstone's expedition to open up the Zambezi for trade, 1857; joined James Chapman on an expedition from the south-west coast of Africa to the Victoria Falls, 1861; returned to England to write and lecture before going back to southern Africa to lead an expedition which successfully secured concessions for a gold mining company; testimonial gold watch by the Royal Geographical Society, 1873; continued to travel in southern Africa, surveying, drawing, and painting; died, 1875.
Born, 1826; Addiscombe, 1844; appointed to Bombay Engineers, 1846; military reconnaissance of the Trans-Indus region from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan, 1849-1853; assistant in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, 1853; Mahsud Waziri expedition, 1860; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1859-1896; Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, 1861-1883; Surveyor-General of India, 1869-1883; retired, 1883; RGS Council member, 1885; President of the Geographical Section of the British Association at Aberdeen; died, 1896.
Born in Leeds, 1811; LRCP, Edinburgh 1860; MRSC, Eng. 1844; LSA, 1839; Surgeon on a Whaling Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, 1839-1843; died, 1879.
Born 1910; educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military College Sandhurst; passed out first from Royal Military College Sandhurst and awarded King's Gold Medal and the Anson Memorial Sword, 1930; commissioned into 2 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps, 1930; served in Tidworth, Wiltshire, 1930; posted to 1 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps, Lucknow, India, 1931; Lt,1933; seconded to Indian Police with local rank of Capt, Bengal, 1934-1935; service in Burma with 1 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps, 1935-1938; qualified as Interpreter in French and German, 1936; Capt, 1938; seconded to Indian Police with local rank of Capt, Bengal, 1938-1940; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; awarded Indian Police Medal, 1940; Maj, 1940; Second in Command, 10 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps (2 Rangers), 1942-1943; Chief Instructor, Commando Mountain and Snow Warfare Training Camp, Braemar, Aberdeenshire, 1943; Commanding Officer, 11 Bn, King's Royal Rifle Corps, Italy and Palestine, 1944; Lt Col, 1944; awarded DSO, 1944; commanded 11 Indian Infantry Bde, Italy and Greece, 1944-1945; awarded CBE, 1945; Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1946; General Staff Officer 1, Joint Planning Staffs, Middle East Land Forces, 1946-1948; Joint Services Staff College, 1949; Western Europe's Commanders-in-Chief Committee, 1950-1951; Col, 1951; Allied Land Forces, Central Europe, 1951-1952; Col, General Staff, Headquarters 1 (British) Corps, 1952; Leader of British Everest Expedition, Tibet, 1952-1953; Knighted, 1953; Assistant Commandant, Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, 1953-1955; awarded Founder's Medal, Royal Geographical Society, 1954; awarded Lawrence Memorial Medal, Royal Central Asian Society, 1954; President, National Association of Youth Clubs, 1954-1970; commanded 168 Infantry Bde, Territorial Army, 1955-1956; retired as Hon Brig, 1956; President, The Alpine Club, 1956-1958; Director, Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, 1956-1966; President, Britain and Nepal Society, 1960-1975; Rector, Aberdeen University, 1963-1966; President, Climbers' Club, 1963-1966; President, British Mountaineering Council, 1965-1968; Life Peer, 1966; Chairman, Parole Board for England and Wales, 1967-1974; Personal Adviser to Prime Minister Rt Hon (James) Harold Wilson during Nigerian Civil War, 1968-1970; President, The National Ski Federation, 1968-1972; President, Council for Volunteers Overseas, 1968-1974; Chairman, Advisory Committee on Police in Northern Ireland, 1969; President, Rainer Foundation, 1971-1985; Member, Royal Commission on the Press, 1974-1977; President, National Association of Probation Officers, 1974-1980; President, Royal Geographical Society, 1977-1980; created KG, 1979; Chairman, Intermediate Treatment Committee, 1980-1985; President, Council for National Parks, 1980-1986; joined Social Democratic Party, 1981; joined Social and Liberal Democrats, 1988; President, National Association for Outdoor Education, 1991-1993; awarded King Albert I Memorial Medal for Mountaineering, 1994; died 1998.
Publications: The ascent of Everest (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1953); Sir John Hunt's diary (Everest 1953) [1953]; Our Everest adventure. The pictorial history from Kathmandu to the summit, with Christopher Brasher (Brockhampton Press, Leicester, 1954); translation with Wilfrid Noyce of Starlight and storm. The ascent of six great north faces of the Alps by Gaston Rébuffat (Dent,London, 1956); The red snows. An account of the British Caucasus Expedition, 1958, with Christopher Brasher (Hutchinson, London, 1960); Nigeria. The problem of relief in the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war. Report of Lord Hunt's mission. (HMSO, London, 1970); Hunt Report on Mountain Training, July 1975 (British Mountaineering Council, Manchester, 1975); Life is meeting (Hodder andStoughton, London, 1978); editor of My favourite mountaineering stories (Lutterworth Press, Guildford, Surrey, 1978); In search of adventure [1989].
César L M Des Graz was Secretary to the Commandant of the ASTROLABE on the voyage, 1837-1840.
In 1836 Emperor Louis Philippe of France wanted France to play a part in the exploration of the Southern Seas. Dumont d'Urville in ASTROLABE would lead and would be accompanied by another ship LA ZELEE captained by Charles Hector Jacquinot. Seven scientists accompanied the crews on the voyage. The ships left Toulon 7 Sep 1837, the aim to locate the southern magnetic pole. On 22 Jan 1838 the ships came across Antarctic ice in the Antarctic peninsula region. They sailed across the Pacific in more temperate and tropical climes before heading south again to Tasmania arriving in November 1839. They set sail for Antarctica once again on 1 Jan 1840 and on the 19th sighted a part of the continent where the first ever landing on continental Antarctica was made. They determined the approximate position of the southern magnetic pole before heading back to Tasmania and New Zealand arriving back in Toulon France on 7 Nov 1840.
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
L R R Machin made an attempt to climb Mt Kenya in 1920 with J W Arthur, J T Oulton and James Youngson. Bad conditions made their climb unsuccessful.
Born, 1880; archæologist; physician at the Queen Victoria Hospital; doctor to the Duke of Connaught; pioneer of winter sports in the French Alps; died 1960.
Publications: Le col Alpin franchi par Hannibal (1958)
The North Australian Expedition explored North Australia from the Victoria River to Brisbane, 1855-1857. It was led by Augustus Charles Gregory (1819-1905) and was partly sponsored by the Royal Geographical Society.
Sir Percy Zachariah Cox was born on 20 November 1864 at Herongate, Essex; educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Cox obtained a commission with the 2nd Cameronians, stationed in India in 1884 and in 1889 joined the Indian Staff Corps. In 1893 Cox left India for the protectorate of British Somaliland; was appointed assistant political resident at Zeila, transferred to the principal port of Berbera in 1894, and in May 1895 was made Captain of an expedition against the Rer Hared clan, which had blocked trade routes and was raiding coastal groups. Given the expedition's success, he was promoted assistant to the viceroy's agent in Baroda.
In 1899 the new viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, offered Cox the chance to become political agent and consul at Muscat. In 1904 Cox was promoted as Acting Political Resident in the Persian Gulf as well as Consul-General for the Persian provinces of Fars, Lurestan, and Khuzestan. He became resident in 1909.
Cox became Secretary to the Government of India early in 1914, but the outbreak of war saw his dispatch back to the Gulf as chief political officer with the Indian expeditionary force. He was promoted to honorary Major-General in the course of the war, and saw some action with Major-General Charles Townshend, but his main role was administrative and political. In November 1918 Cox became acting-minister in Tehran, where he negotiated an Anglo-Persian treaty, but in June 1920 was made high commissioner in Iraq. Cox arrived in Baghdad in October 1920 to replace Sir Arnold Wilson and embarked on the most important work of his career, setting up a council of state under the venerable naqib of Baghdad.
In 1902, Cox was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire; Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, 1911; Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India, 1915; Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1917 and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, 1920. Cox received honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, 1925 and Manchester, 1929; was Fellow of Royal Geographical Society, 1895-1937; President of the Royal Geographical Society, 1933-1936 and chairman of the Mount Everest committee. He died on 20 February 1937 while hunting.
Sir Richard Francis Burton was born 19 March 1821; he matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1840. Colonel Burton purchased a commission for Burton in the Bombay army and he arrived in India in October 1842, serving as a staff interpreter, surveyor, and intelligence officer as well as carrying out infantry duties. Burton demonstrated proficiency in the East India Company's language examinations and during his life mastered more than forty languages and dialects. Burton also mastered cultures, enabling him to 'pass among native peoples in disguise'. Following a bout of cholera Burton returned to England and began to write, publishing dozens of books.
In 1852 Burton proposed to the Royal Geographical Society that he make the hajj, or pilgrimage, to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Forbidden to non-Muslims, Burton intended to make the pilgrimage in complete disguise as a Muslim native of the Middle East. With the RGS's support, Burton set off in 1854, taking notes and A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, 1855-1856 became a classic piece of travel literature. Following this on 29 October 1854, disguised as a Turkish merchant, Burton began an expedition to Harar, an area no European had ever entered. On his return to England Burton was awarded the RGS's gold medal. Burton continued to travel to places including Damascus and North America and to write and died 20 October 1890.
Born, 1868; education, Exmouth House School, Stoke Damerel, and Stubbington House, Fareham, 1879, to be crammed for the Royal Navy; joined the training ship HMS BRITANNIA, 1881; passed out in 1883; served in turn aboard the BOADICEA, the MONARCH, and the ROVER, 1883-1887; Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 1887-1888; sub-lieutenant in the SPIDE; posted to the DAPHNE and then to the AMPHION for service on the Pacific station at Esquimalt, British Columbia, 1889; returned to England to serve briefly on the CAROLINE in the Mediterranean, 1891; transferred to the VERNON (shore establishment) to specialise in torpedo work; qualified as torpedo lieutenant, first class, and was appointed to the VULCAN, 1893; 1895 to 1896 Scott served in the torpedo school Defiance, 1895-1896, the battleship EMPRESS OF INDIA, 1896-1897 and the MAJESTIC; appointed commander of the British National Antarctic expedition, 1900; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1900-1913; British National Antarctic expedition, 1901-1904; patron's gold medal, Royal Geographical Society, 1904; returned to active service, commanding in turn the VICTORIOUS, 1906, the ALBEMARLE, 1907, the ESSEX, 1908, and the BULWARK, 1909; naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord, 1909; British Antarctic expedition, 1910-1912; died, 1912.
Publications: The Voyage of the 'Discovery' (1905)