Major-General Malcolm Neynoe MacLeod (23 May 1882 – 1 August 1969) was Director General of the

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

from 1935 to 1943. In 1935, he started the

retriangulation of Great Britain The Retriangulation of Great Britain was a triangulation (surveying), triangulation project carried out between 1935 and 1962 that sought to improve the accuracy of maps of Great Britain. Data gathered from the retriangulation replaced data gat ...

, an immense task which involved erecting concrete triangulation pillars (trig points) on prominent (often inaccessible) hilltops throughout Britain. As well as being an immense physical task, it was also an extremely complex mathematical undertaking. MacLeod can fairly be said to be the creator of the Ordnance Survey in its modern form. MacLeod was commissioned in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is the engineering arm of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces ...

in 1900, serving in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

from 1902 until 1914. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he commanded the 4th Field Survey Battalion and was awarded the MC in the

1917 New Year Honours The 1917 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in several editions of ''The London Gazette'' in Ja ...

. He became Chief Instructor at the School of Artillery, Larkhill in 1920, serving until 1923 when he moved to the Ordnance Survey. After attending the

Staff College, Quetta The Command and Staff College Quetta is a staff college for the Pakistan Armed Forces and military officers from allied countries. Established in 1905 as Staff College, Deolali, it was later shifted to its present location in 1907 and has been a ...

. he was Director-General of the Ordnance Survey in 1935, retiring in 1943.

References

Bibliography

*Yolande Hodson, 2004, 'MacLeod, Malcolm Neynoe (1882–1969)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *

External links

Papers relating to Malcolm MacLeod
1882 births 1969 deaths British cartographers Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War I Place of birth missing Recipients of the Military Cross British Army generals of World War II British Army major generals Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta {{UK-scientist-stub