Thomas Hungerford Holdich

Colonel Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich (13 February 1843 – 2 November 1929) was an English geographer and president of the Royal Geographical Society. He is best known as Superintendent of Frontier Surveys in British India, arbiter in the Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case and author of numerous books, including The Gates of India, The Countries of the King's Award and Political Frontiers and Boundary Making.

Life

Born in Dingley, Northamptonshire, England to the Rev. Thomas Peach 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 Anglo-Afghan War of 1878–79. Harold Adrian Holdich was his son born in 1874.

During peacetime, Holdich was largely occupied with the survey of India. He was the chief surveyor on the Afghan Boundary Commission of 1884–86. The Commission soon found itself in the midst of a crisis, inflamed by the Panjdeh incident; when this nearly led to war with Russia, Holdich was put in charge of fortifying Herat against a potential Russian invasion. He later served on the Tasmar Boundary Commission of 1894, the Pamir Boundary Commission of 1895 and the Perso-Baluchistan Boundary Commission of 1896. He was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1887 in recognition of his work on the Afghan frontier.

Holdich was also member of the British tribunal engaged in The Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case by the governments of Argentina and Chile in 1902 to arbitrate the boundary along the Andes Mountains. For this service he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in December 1902.