Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich (13 February 1843 – 2 November 1929) was an English

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

and president of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. He is best known as Superintendent of Frontier Surveys in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, 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 England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 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 1862. He saw active service in the

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

expedition of 1865, the Abyssinian campaign of 1867–68 and the

Second Anglo-Afghan War The Second Anglo-Afghan War (Dari: جنگ دوم افغان و انگلیس, ) was a military conflict fought between the British Raj and the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1878 to 1880, when the latter was ruled by Sher Ali Khan of the Barakzai dy ...

of 1878–79. During peacetime, Holdich was largely occupied with the survey of India. He was the chief surveyor on the

Afghan Boundary Commission The Afghan Boundary Commission (or Joint Anglo-Russian Boundary Commission) was a joint effort by the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire to determine the northern border of Afghanistan. The Boundary Commission traveled and documented the northern ...

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 Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...

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 The Founder's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". Foundation From ...

of the

in 1887 in recognition of his work on the Afghan frontier. Holdich was also member of the British tribunal engaged i
''The Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case''
by the governments of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

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 The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III ...

(KCMG) in December 1902. On his retirement to half-pay 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". He was placed on the Retired list with an Indian pension 13 February 1900. In later years, he wrote and lectured extensively on geographical issues, and served as president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1917 to 1919. He also served as President of the Geographical Association between 1917 and 1918. He contributed a number of entries to the eleventh edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica''.

Boundaries are the inevitable product of advancing civilisation; they are human inventions not necessarily supported by nature's dispositions, and as such they are only of solid value so long as they can be made strong enough and secure enough to prevent their violation and infringement. – Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich (1916)

His thought on international boundaries emphasized a need for them to be, or have the potential to become, militarily strong. Holdich died in 1929 at his home at Parklands in Merrow, Surrey, near

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, at the age of 86.

List of publications

* T H Holdich. (Editor). ''Peru-Bolivia Boundary Commission Report 1911-1913''. 1918. * T H Holdich. ''Boundaries in Europe and the Near East'', 1918. * T H Holdich. ''Frontiers and Boundary Making'', 1916. * T H Holdich, Leonard Arthur Bethell and Hamilton Bower. ''The Abor Expedition: Geographical Results: Discussion''. Geographical Journal, Feb., 1913, vol. 41, no. 2, pages 109–114. * T H Holdich. ''Gates of India, Being an Historical Narrative of Early Relations Between the East and the West'', 1910. * T H Holdich. ''Tibet, the Mysterious'', 1906. * T H Holdich. ''Countries of the King's Award'', 1904. * T H Holdich. ''England's Strength in Asia''. Proceedings of the Central Asian Society, 1904. * T H Holdich. ''Indian Borderland 1880–1900'', 1901. * M. G. Gerard, T. H. Holdrich, R. A. Wahab, A. W. Alcock
Report on the proceedings of the Pamir Boundary Commission.
Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India. 1897. * T H Holdich. ''Notes on the Antiquities, Ethnography and History of Las Bela and Makran'', 1894. *

Family

Holdich was married to Ada Vanrenen, and had two daughters and two sons. His elder daughter Laura Holdich married in 1898 Major Edmund Peach (1865–1902), Indian Staff Corps.

References

External links

Biography
from the Holdich Family History Society
The Geographical Journal
– Obituary, Vol LXXV, No 3, March 1930 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holdich, Thomas 1843 births 1929 deaths English geographers Royal Engineers officers British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War British military personnel of the Abyssinian War Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society Indology Companions of the Order of the Bath Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire British people in colonial India Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society