Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen

Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen FRS FZS FRGS MBOU (6 July 1834 – 2 December 1923), was an English topographer, geologist and surveyor.

The eldest son of Robert Alfred Cloyne Godwin-Austen, Godwin-Austen was born in Teignmouth, and attended the Royal Grammar School, Guildford. His mother, Maria Elizabeth Godwin-Austen, was the only child of Major General Sir Henry Godwin (1784–1853), who commanded the British and Indian forces in the First and Second Anglo-Burmese Wars.

Godwin-Austen was educated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He entered the army in 1851, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and served for many years on the Trigonometrical Survey of India, retiring in 1877.

He gave much of his attention to geology, but he is more especially distinguished for his researches on the natural history of India. He is recognized as a malacologist and was the author of The Land and Freshwater Mollusca of India (1882–87). He was also an ornithologist, writing Birds of Assam (1870–78) and describing a number of birds for the first time, some with Arthur Hay, 9th Marquess of Tweeddale.

The Karakoram peak K2 in the Himalayas was originally named Mount Godwin-Austen in his honour. The Godwin Austen Glacier was also named in his honour.

Bibliography

• Godwin-Austen H. H. (1882-1920). Land and freshwater mollusca of India, including South Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Pegu, Tenasserim, Malaya Peninsula, Ceylon and other islands of the Indian Ocean; Supplementary to Masers Theobald and Hanley's Conchologica Indica. Taylor and Francis, London. VI+257+ 442+65 pp., 165 pls. Published in parts:
  • (1889) Volume 1 + plates; 1882: pp. I–VI, 1–66, pls. 1–12; 1883: pp. 67–164, pls. 13–42; 1884: pls. 43–51; 1886: pp. 165–206; 1887: pls. 52–62; 1888: pp. 207–257.
  • (1889-1914) volume 2 + plates; 1897: pp. 1–46, pls. 63–69; 1898: pp. 47–86, pls. 70–82; 1899: pp. 87–146, pls. 83–100; 1907: pp. 147–238, pls. 101–117; 1910: pp. 239–310, pls. 118–132; 1914: pp. 311–442, pls. 133–158;
  • (1920) volume 3 + plates: 1920: pp. 1–65, pls. 159–165.
• Blanford W. T. & Godwin-Austen H. H. 1908. Mollusca. Testacellidae and Zonitidae. The Fauna of British India, including Burma and Ceylon.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Book by Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen at Open Library
• portrait of Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen