Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

Thomas George Montgomerie FRS (1830–1878) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

surveyor who participated in the Great Trigonometric Survey 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. 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 (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

. Tibet was not part of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

and was closed to foreigners, so he employed and trained Indians, who entered Tibet disguised as travelling Tibetans, and became known as

pundits A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowle ...

. In 1867 Major Montgomerie was assigned to

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

where he was tasked with recruiting native agents to explore

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. Montgomerie recruited a number of individuals to survey Chitral and

Badakhshan Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...

, including Hyder Shah, who in 1870 travelled through the princely states of Swat and Dir and

. Derek J. Waller
The Pundits : British exploration of Tibet and Central Asia
Lexington:

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...

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