Godfrey Thomas Vigne (1 September 1801 – 12 July 1863) was an English amateur

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er and traveller.

Early life

Vigne was born on 1 September 1801 at

Walthamstow Walthamstow ( or ) is a large town in east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London and the ancient county of Essex. Situated northeast of Charing Cross, the town borders Chingford to the north, Snaresbrook and Sout ...

, then in

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

, the eldest son of

Thomas Vigne Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the ...

. He entered

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (sc ...

in 1817, became a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...

in 1824, and was a member of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...

Cricketing career

He was mainly associated with Hampshire sides and he made 11 known appearances in first-class matches from 1819 to 1845.

Arthur Haygarth Arthur Haygarth (4 August 1825 – 1 May 1903) was a noted amateur cricketer who became one of cricket's most significant historians. He played first-class cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club and Sussex between 1844 and 1861, as well as num ...

, ''Scores & Biographies'', Volume 1 (1744-1826), Lillywhite, 1862

Travels

In 1831 Vigne left England for Persia, and then travelled to India. He spent the next seven years travelling in north west India and Central Asia. Between 1835 and 1838 he travelled extensively in

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

and

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu a ...

and was the first European known to have visited

Baltistan Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gil ...

. He was the first to describe

Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...

. In 1836 Vigne visited

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

, and met the emir, Dost Mohammed. He was said to be the first Englishman to have visited

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...

. After 1852 Vigne travelled in Mexico, Nicaragua, the West Indies and the United States. He published several books describing his travels. In 1841, the urial, a wild sheep living in Central and Southern Asia, was given the

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

''Ovis vignei'' in his honour.

Works

''Outline of a Route Through the Panj-áb, Kábul, Kashmír, and into Little Tibet, in the Years 1834-8''
Publisher: Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, Volume 9, 1 January 1839
''A personal narrative of a visit to Ghuzni, Kabul, and Afghanistan, and of a residence at the court of Dost Mohamed with notices of Runjit Sing, Khiva, and the Russian expedition''
With illus. from drawings made by the author on the spot. Publisher: Whitacker & Co., London, 1840
''Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, the countries adjoining the mountain-course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, north of the Panjab. Volume I''
Publisher: Henry Colburn London, 1842
''Travels in Kashmir, Ladak, Iskardo, the countries adjoining the mountain-course of the Indus, and the Himalaya, north of the Panjab. Volume II.''
Publisher: Henry Colburn London, 1842
''Observation on the Vegetation and Products of Afghanistan, Kaschmir and Tibet''
by J. Forbes Royal M.D. F.R.S.

References

External sources

Vigne, Godfrey Thomas by Edward Irving Carlyle
in: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 58
Books by Godfrey Thomas Vigne
Internet Archive – online
Watercolour Paintings by Godfrey Thomas Vigne in VAM Museum
1801 births 1863 deaths English cricketers English cricketers of 1826 to 1863 Hampshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English travel writers Explorers of Central Asia People educated at Harrow School People from Walthamstow English cricketers of 1787 to 1825 A to K v L to Z cricketers Writers about Kashmir Marylebone Cricket Club Second 9 with 3 Others cricketers {{England-cricket-bio-1800s-stub