Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas George Montgomerie FRS (1830–1878) was a British

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

who participated in the

Great Trigonometric Survey The Great Trigonometrical Survey was a project that aimed to survey the entire Indian subcontinent with scientific precision. It was begun in 1802 by the British infantry officer William Lambton, under the auspices of the East India Company.Gil ...

of India as a lieutenant in the 1850s. He was the person to label K2, the second highest mountain in the world, the K standing for

Karakoram The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...

. Despite being often denied close range access, the 19th-century survey work carried out by Montgomerie and the survey of India has been shown to be accurate. The elevations of major summits which they calculated are very close to the elevations which are accepted today. He was subsequently involved in attempts to extend the survey of India into Tibet. Tibet was not part of the British Empire and was closed to foreigners, so he employed and trained Indians, who entered Tibet disguised as travelling Tibetans, and became known as pundits. In 1867 Major Montgomerie was assigned to Peshawar where he was tasked with recruiting native agents to explore Central Asia. Montgomerie recruited a number of individuals to survey

Chitral Chitral ( khw, , lit=field, translit=ćhitrār; ur, , translit=ćitrāl) is situated on the Chitral River in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It serves as the capital of the Chitral District and before that as the capital of Chitral ...

and Badakhshan, including

Hyder Shah Hyder Shah was a member of the British Indian Army who in 1870 traveled as a secret agent through the princely states of Swat and Dir and Badakhshan. 1870 expedition Hyder Shah was a Pashtun Muslim from the town of Kohat south of Peshawar. Hyder ...

, who in 1870 travelled through the princely states of

Swat In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

and Dir and Badakhshan. Derek J. Waller
The Pundits : British exploration of Tibet and Central Asia
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1990.pp. 59-94

List of publications

* T. G. Montgomerie, "A Havildar's Journey through Chitral to Faizabad in 1870," ''

Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London The ''Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London'' was a scholarly geographic journal published by the Royal Geographical Society from 1831 to 1880. After 1881, the ''Journal'' was absorbed by the ''Proceedings'', published as ''Proceed ...

''. vol. 42, 1872, pp. 180–201 * Lieut.-Col. T. G. Montgomerie, "Journey to Shigatze, in Tibet and Return by Dingri-Maidan into Nepaul in 1871, by the native Explorer No. 9" ''

'', 1876 * Lieut.-Col. T. G. Montgomerie, "Narrative of an Exploration of the Namcho, or Tengri nur Lake in Great Tibet made by a native Explorer during 1871–2" ''

'', 1876 * Lieut.-Col. T. G. Montgomerie, "Journey from Pitoragarh, In Kumaon, via Jumlah, to Tadum and back, along the Kali Gandak to British Territory" ''

'', 1876

References

External links

*
Rediscovering Nain Singh
{{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomerie, Thomas George 1830 births 1878 deaths Royal Engineers officers British surveyors British East India Company Army officers Central Asian studies scholars Fellows of the Royal Society