Born, 1892; educated privately; Trinity College, Cambridge, PhD; Civil Service, 1908-1914; served with the North Somerset Yeomanry in Belgium, 1914-1915; Somerset Light Infantry in Mesopotamia (Iraq), 1916-1918; Assistant Political Officer in Mesopotamia, 1918-1922; Assistant British Representative in Trans-Jordan (Jordan), 1922-1924; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1920-1950; Finance Minister and Wazir to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman (Oman), 1925-1932. During this time he made a number of expeditions into the desert, becoming the first European to cross the Rub' Al Khali (Empty Quarter), 1930-1931; RGS Founder's Medal, 1931; Information Officer in Bahrain, 1942-1943; Director of the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies, Palestine, 1943-1946, and Lebanon, 1947-1948; adviser to Shell Group, 1948-1949; died, 1950.
Born, 1916; wartime service in the Royal Engineers; lectured at University College Wales and Leicester; Professor of Geography at Sheffield and London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1941-1983; RGS Victoria Medal, 1974; died, 1982.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1935-1966.
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.
Clarence Dalrymple Bruce was born in 1862; joined the Army, 1882 and served in India, 1883-1889; wounded during service in China, 1898-1904; Commissioner of International Police Shanghai, 1907-1914 and commanded brigade of Scottish Division, 1915. Bruce received a CBE; was Fellow of Royal Geographical Society 1901-1934 and died in 1943.
Sir Charles Frederick Arden-Close was born on 10 August 1865 at St Saviour's, Jersey; educated at a dame-school in Rochester, then Thompson's school, Jersey, and at a crammer, passing second into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1882. In 1884 he passed out first, with the Pollock memorial medal, was commissioned in the Royal Engineers, and joined the School of Military Engineering, Chatham. After a year in Gibraltar, 1886, he was first attached to and later commanded the balloon section at Chatham, 1887-1888. He was next posted to India; engaged on topographic work in Upper Burma and geodetic triangulation on the Mandalay primary series (Toungoo-Katha) and the Mong Hsat secondary series up to the Siam border.
Returning to Chatham, Close was sent in 1895 to West Africa to survey the boundary between the Niger Coast Protectorate and the German Cameroons; was appointed to the Ordnance Survey and in 1898 was made British commissioner to delimit the frontier of British Central Africa and Northern Rhodesia with German East Africa for over 200 miles between lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika. Close collaborated with David Gill, HM astronomer at the Cape, in relation to longitude fixation of points on the German frontier; was appointed CMG in 1899 and in 1900 led a small survey detachment for the South African War, for which practically no maps existed. In 1902-1905 he was chief instructor in surveying at Chatham, introducing new methods and revising his earlier work, Text Book of Military Topography, part 2 (1898), to produce the Text Book of Topographical and Geographical Surveying (1905) which, with later revisions, remained the standard work for the next half-century.
In 1905 Close had become head of the topographical (from 1907 geographical) section, general staff, at the War Office, of which a major concern was overseas maps. He pressed, with success, for the formation of the colonial survey committee (August 1905) and for surveying in British colonies. Close and his directors in MI4, having experienced in South Africa the disadvantages of waging war without maps, took the unprecedented step of preparing maps of a probable European theatre of war. Due to the foresight of the geographical section, the British army entered World War One better supplied with maps than in any previous conflict.
Close was appointed director-general of the Ordnance Survey on 18 August 1911. He established three mean-sea level tidal stations, at Dunbar, Newlyn, and Felixstowe, and focused on the cartography of the Ordnance Survey with the intention of revolutionising the appearance of the map. In 1919, Close secured the appointment of a civilian archaeology officer, O. G. S. Crawford, resulting in a highly acclaimed series of historical maps of which the first was Roman Britain (1924). After the war Close had the task of implementing cuts in the Ordnance Survey establishment which had been recommended by the Geddes committee. A direct result of this was that the large-scale plans fell massively into arrears by the 1930s.
Close retired in 1922. He had served on the council of the Royal Geographical Society, 1904-1940, and was Victoria gold medallist, 1927, and President, 1927-1930. He was chairman of the National Committee for Geography and General Secretary of the International Geographical Union, being President in 1934-1938. He was first treasurer, 1919-1930, then chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1930-1945, and President of the Hampshire Field Club, 1929-1932 and 1935-1936.
Close was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919; received an honorary ScD from Cambridge, 1928; was an honorary member of the Russian, German, Belgian, Dutch, Spanish, and Swiss geographical societies. He was appointed CB in 1916 and KBE in 1918; he was an officer of the order of Leopold, and a member of the Afghan order of Astaur. Arden-Close died in Winchester, on 19 December 1952. His contribution to the cartography and history of the Ordnance Survey was recognised in 1980 with the formation of a society named after him: The Charles Close Society for the Study of Ordnance Survey Maps.
Born, 1833; commissioned into the Royal Engineers, Gordon was wounded in the Crimea; he demarcated the Russian/Turkish frontiers and served in China from 1860-1865 as Commander of an imperial army; Governor General of the Sudan for the Khedive of Egypt, 1877-1880; sent back to the Sudan in 1884, he was killed when Khartoum fell to the Mahdi's forces, 1885.
Department of Surveys, Nyasaland; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1961-1987.
Born in 1874; House Surgeon and House Physician at Charing Cross Hospital, London, 1897-1898; entered Indian Medical Service, 1899; Medical Officer 2nd Queen's Own Rajput Light Infantry, 1899-1907; served in China, 1900-1902; Capt, 1902; served in Somaliland Field Force, 1903-1904; Staff Surgeon, Bangalore, 1908-1912; Maj, 1910; served in Balkan War, 1912-1913; Deputy Assistant Director of Medical Services, 1 Indian Cavalry Div, 1914-1916; Medical Officer, 11 King Edward's Own Lancers, 1916-1917; Lt Col, 1918; Assistant Director of Medical Services, Wazaristan Field Force, 1919-1920; Assistant Director of Medical Services, Wana Column, 1920-1921; Assistant Director of Medical Services, Razmak Field Force, 1922-1923; Director of Medical Organisation for War, Army HQ, 1924-1925; Col, 1925; Maj-Gen, 1928; Deputy Director of Medical Services, Eastern Command, 1928-1932; Honorary Surgeon to the King, 1928-1932; died in 1958.
Born Dublin, 1844; educated Trinity College Dublin and Royal Military Academy Woolwich; Royal Engineers, 1866; served in Sudan under General Charles Gordon, 1874-1875; War Office, 1875-1878; India Office, 1880-1882; led advance on Cairo after Battle of Tell al-Kebir, 1882; served in Egyptian Army, 1882-1886; assistant Inspector General of Fortifications, 1891; retired 1902; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1875-1916; knighted, 1905; died, London, 1916.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1902-1912.
Born, 1830; educated: private school at Cheam, Surrey, 1839-1842 and Westminster School, 1842-1844; joined the Royal Navy as a cadet; first sailed on HMS COLLINGWOOD to South America; transferred to the Arctic squadron and sailed on the ASSISTANCE in search of Franklin, 1850-1851; left the Royal Navy; expedition to Peru, 1852-1853; returned to England and took up a position at what was to become the India Office, 1854; commissioned to carry from Peru to India seeds of the cinchona tree; built up the geographical department of the India Office in London; took unauthorized leave to sail to Greenland with the north polar expedition, 1867-1868, and was obliged to resign in 1877 as a consequence; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1853-1916; one of the Society's Honorary Secretaries, 1863-1888; President of the RGS, 1893-1905; died, 1916.
Publications: Franklin's Footsteps
(1853)
Cuzco … and Lima
(1856)
Travels in Peru and India
(1862)
Peruvian Bark
(1880)
Memoir on the Indian Surveys
(1871)
History of the Abyssinian Expedition
(1869),
Richard III
(1906)
FRGS 1882-1886
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).
Born, 1786; educated, Merchant Taylors' School, 1793-; briefly articled to a London solicitor; joined the army as a volunteer, 1811 and served in the Peninsula and in Belgium; instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1818; led the expedition to trace the course of the Niger, 1822-1825; fellow of the Royal Society; appointment to reorganize the Liberated African department, Sierra Leone, 1827-1828; died, 1828.
Publications: Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa (1826)
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1913-1962.
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, 1813; studied medicine at Edinburgh, 1829; licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 1833; surgeon of the Hudson's Bay Company's ship Prince of Wales, Jun 1833; surgeon at Moose Factory, the company post on James Bay, 1834-1844; lead an expedition to complete the survey of the northern coastline of North America, 1844-1847; chief trader, 1847; joined Sir John Richardson to search for Sir John Franklin, 1848-1849; chief factor, 1850; resumed the search for Franklin at the Admiralty's request, 1851; founder's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1852; Fellow of the RGS, 1853-1893; led expedition to complete the survey of the north coast of America along the west coast of the Boothia peninsula, 1853-1854 - on this expedition he was the first to hear news of Franklin's fate; retired, 1856; served on the Council of the RGS on four occasions; died, 1893.
Born, 1813; employed in a mill as a 'piecer', 1823; became involved with the London Missionary Society in 1838 and undertook a probationary year of scriptural studies to a clergyman in Chipping Ongar, Essex; moved to London for lectures on anatomy and medicine, 1840; licentiate of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 1840; ordained, Nov 1840; missionary in South Africa, 1841-1852; discovered Lake Ngami, 1849; crossing of Africa, 1852-1856; returned to Britain, 1856-1858; Royal Geographical Society gold medal, 1856; fellow of the Royal Society, 1858; Zambezi expedition, 1858-1864; in Britain, 1864-1865; returned to Africa for further expeditions, 1866-1873; died, 1873.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Born Aberdeen 1843; educated Dollar Academy and Marischal College Aberdeen; left university prematurely to take up watchmaking apprenticeship aged 17; took up astronomy 1863; visted Pulkovo Observatory, St Petersburg and Germany, 1873; observed Transit of Venus in Mauritius, 1874-1976; visited Ascension to observe Mars, 1876; Her Majesty's Astronomer at Cape of Good Hope, 1879-1907; pioneered photography in astronomy especially from 1882 resulting in the publication of the magnitudes and positions of more than 455,000 stars; organised geodetic survey of South Africa, largely completed by 1897; Fellow of the Royal Society, 1883; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1890-1914; died 1914.
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.
Born, 1862; instructor in surveying and map curator at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1878-1933; Fellow of the RGS, 1900-1945; Victoria Medal, RGS, 1928; died, 1945.
Thornton , Annie , fl 1905-1910 , wife of Ernest
Ernest Thornton was an English Official posted in Kabul, Afghanistan, c 1905-1908. Annie Thornton was his wife.
Publications: Leaves from an Afghan Scrapbook: The Experiences of an English Official and His Wife in Kabul (London: John Murray, 1910).
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.
Born, 1905; educated, Welshpool county school, 1915-1922; read geography and anthropology, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, 1922-1925; first post in geography at Queen's University, Belfast, 1928; Professor of Geography, Queen's University, Belfast, 1945-1968; first Director of the newly established Institute of Irish Studies, 1968; retired, 1970; Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1973; died, 1989.
Educated Somerville College, Oxford and Swanley Horticultural College; travelled to Egypt, 1892; went to India including Kashmir; Women's War Service, 1914-1918; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1919-1950; visited the Canaries and West Africa, c 1938; also travelled in Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, South East Asia and the Middle East; died, 1950.
Publications: Some Wild Flowers of Kashmir (1903)
Some Letters and Records of the Noel Family (1910)
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.
Ethel Gertrude Woods was born 1865; educated, Newham College, Cambridge, 1891; research studentship in Munich; science teacher, 1898-1910; worked in the Censorship Department during World War One; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1927-1939; died 1939.
Born, 1865; educated Cambridge University; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1886-1949; took cources in surveying, geology and botany; took part in a scheme for settling Santals in Bengal Duars, India; joined staff of RGS, 1894; Librarian of the RGS, 1901-1934; Research Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, 1933; RGS Victoria Medal, 1934; Librarian Emeritus, 1934-1949; died, 1949.
Born, 1874; educated Dulwich College, 1887; joined the mercantile marine, 1890, serving in the White Star Line, the Shire Line, and the Union Castle Line, and making several voyages round the world; fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 1899-1922; junior officer on board the steam yacht Discovery, the newly built wooden barque which carried the members of the national Antarctic expedition of 1901-1904 to the Southern Ocean; took part in the first long-distance sledge journey into the interior Antarctica and was less than 500 miles from the south pole; secretary of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in Edinburgh, 1904; as Liberal Unionist candidate for parliament at the general election of 1906; secretary of the Parkhead engineering works at Glasgow; British Antarctic expedition, 1907-1909; Awarded Special Gold Medal for Nimrod Expedition, 1909; imperial trans-Antarctic expedition, 1914-1917; propaganda mission on behalf of the Foreign Office in South America in late 1917 and early 1918; commission as major and put in charge of equipment for the winter campaign of the north Russian expeditionary force, based in Murmansk, 1918-1819; resigned his commission, Feb1919 and returned to business projects; died suddenly of a heart attack while on board the Quest at Grytviken, 1922.
John Balleny was the English captain of a whaling schooner, the ELIZA SCOTT, who led an commercial voyage of discovery, hoping to find new lands and sealing grounds for the English whaling firm Enderby Brothers to the Antarctic in 1838-1839. Balleny, sailing in company with Thomas Freeman and the SABRINA, sailed into the Southern Ocean along a corridor of longitude centering on the line of 175°E., south of New Zealand. During their voyage they discovered the Balleny Islands, Feb 1839, and caught a brief sight of Antarctica itself at 64°58'S., 121°08'E.
John Balleny was born c 1770; may have been a Londoner, brought up in the Newcastle coal trade; from 1798, he is occasionally recorded in the coasting, home, and foreign trades as master of various vessels; master of the ELIZA SCOTT, 1838; died in or after 1842.
Eric Marshall was surgeon and cartographer on Ernest Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909, he was one of the party of four who reached Furthest South on 9 Jan 1909.
Born, 1904; educated as a scholar at Sedbergh School, -1921; lived with his family for a year in Germany; worked writing travel guides, 1923; wrote for newspapers, especially on birds, and by 1925 was well established; read modern history, Hertford College, Oxford, 1926-1929; set up the Oxford University Exploration Club, and took part in expeditions to Greenland and British Guiana; assistant editor of the Weekend Review, 1929; member of the think-tank Political and Economic Planning (PEP), 1931-; founder of the British Trust for Ornithology, 1933; chairman of the British Trust for Ornithology, 1947-1949; founder member of the Edward Grey Institute in Oxford, 1938; Head of Allocation of Tonnage Division, Ministry of War Transport, 1942-1945; Secretary, Office of The Lord President of the Council, 1945-1952; Member, Advisory Council on Scientific Policy, 1948-1964; Director-General of The Nature Conservancy, 1952-1966; participated in Guy Mountfort's expeditions to the Coto Doñana in 1957 and to Jordan in 1964; Lecturer, University of California, 1964; Convener, Conservation Section, International Biological Programme, 1963-1974; founder of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), 1961; Secretary, Duke of Edinburgh's Study Conference on the Countryside in 1970, 1963; Albright chairman of Land Use Consultants, 1966-1989; chairman of the New Renaissance Group, 1966-; a Director and Managing Editor, Environmental Data Services Ltd, 1978-1980; President, RSPB, 1980-1985; President, Trust for Urban Ecology (formerly Ecological Parks Trust), 1987-1988; President, New Renaissance Gp, 1998-2000; died, 2003.
Publications:
Birds in England (1926)
How Birds Live (1927)
The Art of Bird-Watching (1931)
The System (1967)
The Environmental Revolution (1970)
The Big Change (1973)
Born, 1814; entered the navy, 1826, under his uncle, John Ommanney; passed his examination, 1833; mate in the brig PANTALOON; appointed to the transport COVE (Captain Clark Ross), which was ordered to Baffin's Bay to release a number of whalers caught in the ice, 1835; joined the frigate PIQUE (Captain Henry John Rous), 1836; appointed to the DONEGAL as flag-lieutenant to his uncle, now Sir John Ommanney, commander-in-chief on the Lisbon and Mediterranean stations, 1837; commander, 1840; served on board the steam sloop VESUVIUS in the Mediterranean, 1841-1844; second in command, Franklin search expedition, 1850-1851; Deputy Controller-General of the Coastguard, 1851-1854; commissioned the EURYDICE as senior officer of a small squadron for the White Sea in the Russian War, 1854; appointed to the HAWKE, blockship for the Baltic, and was employed chiefly as senior officer in the Gulf of Riga, 1855; appointed to the BRUNSWICK, going out to the West Indies, 1857, and later the Channel Fleet, 1859; senior officer at Gibraltar from 1862; promoted to flag rank, 1864; retired, 1875; died, 1904.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1925-.
Born 1907; as a child he travelled frequently between Ceylon and Europe; became interested in mountaineering in the Alps and Norway; went to Kenya to work on a coffee plantation, 1928; with Percy Wyn-Harris made the second ascent of Batian and the first of Nelion, the twin peaks of Mount Kenya; made the first complete traverse of the twin peaks of Mount Kenya with Harold William Tilman; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1930-1977; joined the expedition led by Francis Sydney Smythe to Kamet in Garhwal Himalaya, 1931; undertook a series of Himalayan ventures throughout the 1930s; Mount Everest expedition of 1933 on which he reached 27,900 feet; with Tilman and three Sherpas he spent three months in Garhwal Himalaya and forced an entry, for the first time, up the Rishi gorge and into the Nanda Devi sanctuary which, with its satellite peaks, they surveyed; expeditions to the north side of Everest, 1935, 1936, and 1938; two journeys of exploration to the remote areas of the Karakoram bordering on Tibet and Sinkiang (Xinjiang), 1937 and 1938; Patron's medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1938; At the outbreak of the Second World War, Shipton was engaged on the second Karakoram expedition; consul-general at Kashgar; returned to Britain, 1942; Foreign Office posting to Persia; second tour of duty at Kashgar, 1946-1948; consul-general at Kunming, Yunnan, 1949-1951; reconnaissance of the south side of Everest, 1951; warden of the Outward Bound Trust school in Eskdale, 1952-1954; undertook a series of exploratory journeys in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 1958-1964; adviser to the Chilean government in the boundary dispute with Argentina; President of the Alpine Club, 1965-1967; died, 1977.
Publications:
Nanda Devi (1936)
Blank on the Map (1938)
Upon that Mountain (1948)
Mountains of Tartary (1951)
Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition (1951)
Land of Tempest (1963)
That Untravelled World (1969)
FRGS 1930-1977; .
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.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, from 1913.
Born, 1840; wood engraver until 1860; produced a series of commissioned alpine scenery sketches, 1860; Alpine climber, 1861-1865, including the first ascent of the Matterhorn, 1865; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1865-1911; expeditions to Greenland to study Arctic travel and ice phenomena, 1867 and 1872; expedition to the Andes, 1880; expeditions in the Canadian Rockies, early 1900s; died 1911.
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, 1827; merchant in Calcutta and London; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1867, died, 1870.
Born 1850; began surveying as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy Surveying Service aboard the HMS NASSU, 1868; first charting work was in the Magellan Strait; China Station, 1870-1873; served aboard HMS ALERT under Capt Nares, 1878; service on board the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert, 1879; first command, hydrographic surveyor on HMS MAGPIE in the Sunda Strait and North East Borneo coasts, including surveying on the China Station, [1881-1883]; commissioned HMS RAMBLER and carried out extensive surveys in the Red Sea and in the East, 1884-; surveyed the Western Australian waters in HMS MYRMIDON; Professional Advisor to the Harbour Department at the Board of Trade, 1897-1900; watercolourist; Commander, 1881; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1881-1900; died 1900.
Born, 1895; formally educated at Eton College and, for a year, at Balliol College, Oxford, which he left in Sep 1914 to join the Royal Field Artillery; served in France, 1914-1915; seconded to intelligence duties in Italy, 1916; staff officer in the Middle East and served in Libya, Sinai, Egypt, Palestine, and Syria; staff captain, Arab bureau, Damascus; joined the diplomatic service, 1919-1924; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1921-1978; journey in the southern Sahara, 1922; worked on the Stock Exchange, 1926-1929; journey in the southern Sahara, 1927; RGS's Cuthbert Peek award, 1927; RGS founder's medal, 1929; Bank of England, 1929-1932, (two years of which he was seconded to the Bank for International Settlements at Basel); merchant bank Morgan, Grenfell and Co.,1933-1967; Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1939; civil affairs administration, for the Middle East, east Africa, and Italy, 1942; President of the RGS, 1945-1948; member of the board of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, 1954-1965; RGS Honorary Member, 1971; died, 1978.
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.
Born, 1885, educated St Paul's School and Christ's College, Cambridge; teaching post in Shanghai, 1907; undertook around 25 expeditions over a period of nearly fifty years in the mountains where China, Tibet, India and Burma meet, studying the distribution of plants and animals; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1911-1958; RGS Cuthbert Peek Grant 1916 and 1924; RGS Royal Medals (Founder's and Patron's), 1930; died, 1958.
Born, 1819; entered the navy, 1831; passed his examination, 1838; promoted lieutenant on 29 July 1845, when serving in the steamer HMS GORGON on the South American station; served on the sloop HMS FROLIC in the Pacific, 1845-1847; appointed to the HMS ENTERPRISE (Captain Sir James Clark Ross) for a voyage to the Arctic, 1848; first lieutenant of the HMS ASSISTANCE in the Arctic, 1850-1851; commander of HMS INTREPID part of the Arctic expedition of five ships under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher, 1852-1854; commander of the FOX on the search for Sir John Franklin, 1854-1859; commanded the frigate HMS DORIS in the Mediterranean, 1861-1862; commissioned HMS AURORA for service with the channel squadron, 1863; commodore-in-charge at Jamaica, 1865-1868; Admiral-Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard, 1872-1877; Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West Indies station, 1879-1882; elected an elder brother of Trinity House, 1884; retired, 1884; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1880-1907; died, 1907.
Frederick William Hugh Migeod was born on 9 August 1872 in Chislehurst, Kent. Educated at Folkestone, he joined the Royal Navy Pay Department in 1889. In 1900 he began service with the Colonial Civil Service and was stationed in the Gold Coast until 1919. He then began a series of expeditions to Lake Chad, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone, and twice crossed equatorial Africa. From 1925-1927 and again in 1929 and 1931 he led a British Museum East Africa expedition to excavate dinosaur bones. Following his return to England he became a local councillor and Alderman in Worthing and was Chairman of the British Union for Abolition of Vivisection. He was Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1917-1952. He died on 8 July 1952.
Frederick Migeod's publications include The Languages of West Africa (1913), A Grammar of the Hausa Language (1914), Across Equatorial Africa (1923), Through Nigeria and Lake Chad (1924) and Through British Cameroons (1925).