Thomas Holdich

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Colonel Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich, KCMG, KCIE, CB (1843-1929) was a British geographer and president of the Royal Geographical Society. He is best known as Superintendent of Frontier Surveys in British India and author of numerous books, including The Gates of India and Political Frontiers and Boundary Making.

Born in Dingley, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom to the Rev. Thomas Holdich, he was educated at Godolphin Grammar School and the Royal Military Academy, obtaining a commission in the Royal Engineers in 1862. He saw active service in the Bhutan expedition of 1865, the Abyssinian campaign of 1867-68 and the Second Afghan War of 1878-79.

During peacetime, he was largely occupied with the survey of India, and served on the Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884-86, the Tasmar Boundary Commission of 1894, the Pamir Boundary Commission of 1895 and the Perso-Baluchistan Boundary Commission of 1896. He was also engaged by the governments of Argentina and Chile in 1892 to define the boundary along the Andes Mountains. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1887 in recognition of his work on the Afghan frontier.

On his retirement in 1898, he thanked "that providence which had been good to me in that during that last year of my Indian career I had been able to put a round finish on the last of our frontier maps". In later years, he wrote and lectured extensively on geographical issues, and served as president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1917-19. He contributed a number of entries to the Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th edn.

Sir Thomas was married to Ada Vanrenan, and had two daughters and one son. He died in 1929 at his home at Parklands in Merrow, Surrey, near Guildford, at the age of 86.

[edit] External links

• Biography from the Holdich Family History Society

Persondata
NAME	Holdich, Thomas Hungerford
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British geographer, writer and soldier; surveyed the Indian frontier, and Chilean-Argentine border
DATE OF BIRTH	1843
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dingley, Northamptonshire, England
DATE OF DEATH	1929
PLACE OF DEATH	Merrow, Surrey, England