Thomas George Montgomerie

Colonel Thomas George Montgomerie (born April 23, 1830 in Ayrshire , Scotland , † January 31, 1878 in Bath , Somerset , England ) was a British geodesist and officer who took part in the Great Trigonometric Survey of the Indian Subcontinent in the 1850s. He became known as the leader of the native explorers ( local researchers ) that the basis for mapping particular Tibet delivered and later as Pundits were called.

Live and act

After training at the East India Company Military Seminary in Addiscombe and at the British pioneer school , the Royal School of Military Engineering in Chatham , he was sent to India in 1851. There he served a year in Roorkee in the Bengal Sappers , a respected pioneer - Regiment . He was then at his request to Great Trigonometrical Survey ( Trigonometric Large Survey ) under Colonel Andrew Scott Waugh seconded. He participated in the creation of baselines at Attock and Karachi . 1855 him both the geodetic and topographic survey of from one was Maharaja dominated Prince state Kashmir and Jammu transmitted, the British a largely unknown territory that of Jammu m at a height of about 350 up to the eight-thousand of Karakorum increased. The task included not only the strenuous surveying work in stations well over 5000 m high, but also maintaining friendly relations with the Maharaja and his son, which earned him all-round recognition. He also managed to get his surveying force unscathed by the Indian uprising of 1857 . Montgomerie drew up a map of Kashmir in the winter of 1858/59 at the headquarters of the service in Dehradun , which received the highest praise from all and was issued at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in December 1859. Montgomerie completed the survey of Kashmir in 1863, but then had to return to England for health reasons.

Sketch of the K1 ( Masherbrum ) and K2 made by Montgomerie

Measuring the K mountains in the Karakoram

In the Karakoram he numbered the prominent peaks from the west and gave them the prefix K (for "Karakoram"). The second highest mountain in the world, the K2 , is the only summit above 8000 m to still bear this provisional name. Although Montgomery's measurements were carried out with very simple means and sometimes from a considerable distance, his height information agrees relatively exactly with the currently accepted. He determined the height of K2 at 8,619 m, only three meters higher than the height of 8,616 m determined by Ardito Desio and Alessandro Caporali in 1986 and eight meters higher than the height of 8,611 m usually specified today.

Surveying beyond the borders of British India

→ Main article : Pundit (surveyor)

The countries beyond the borders of the British sphere of influence along the mountain ranges of the Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush were as good as unknown - and closed to British as well as Europeans in general, while traders and pilgrims from the Himalayas and the neighboring mountains were largely unhindered could cross. As early as 1860, Montgomerie came up with the idea of ​​training locals in simple surveying techniques and equipping them accordingly so that appropriate maps could be made on their return to Dehradun on the basis of their secret observations. Abdul Hamid made the first trip to Yarkant in 1863 , the location of which he determined for the first time. He was killed on the way back shortly before Leh , but the material he had created could be saved. Montgomerie sent other local explorers on trips to the closed areas, including Nain Singh , who became famous under his code name Pundit , so that Pundit became the name of all native explorers .

After his return to India, Montgomerie was appointed head of the Himalayan Survey in Uttarakhand in 1867 and, as an officer in charge trans-Himalayan exploring parties, was appointed head of the training and further trips of the Pundits. Montgomerie continued this program until he had to return to England for good in 1873 for health reasons.

He retired from military service in 1876 ​​with the rank of Colonel .

Honors

Montgomerie was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society . In 1865 he was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1872 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society , he was an honorary member of the Italian and other geographical societies. In 1875 he took part in the Geographical Congress in Paris as a representative of Great Britain and India and the Royal Geographical Society.

K mountains

Under the direction of Montgomerie, a total of 32 snow-capped peaks in the Karakoram were numbered (K1 - K32) and measured. The surveying devices were set up, among other things, on an approximately 4875 meter high western peak ( Station Peak ) of Mount Haramukh (coordinates: 34 ° 24 ′ 13 ″ N 74 ° 54 ′ 7 ″ E ) in the northwestern Himalayas; from here Montgomerie was the first to see the K2. With a few exceptions, the numbering follows the resulting panorama from left to right.

Numbered peaks of the Karakoram under Montgomery's direction.

K name	Common name	height	position
K1	Masherbrum	7821 m	35 ° 38 ′ 24 ″ N, 76 ° 18 ′ 0 ″ E
K2	K2	8611 m	35 ° 52 '48 "N, 76 ° 30' 36" E
K3	Gasherbrum IV	7932 m	35 ° 45 ′ 39 "N, 76 ° 36 ′ 57" E
K3a	Gasherbrum III	7932 m	35 ° 45 ′ 36 "N, 76 ° 38 ′ 26" E
K4	Gasherbrum II	8034 m	35 ° 45 ′ 31 ″ N, 76 ° 39 ′ 10 ″ E
K5	Hidden Peak , Gasherbrum I.	8080 m	35 ° 43 ′ 32 "N, 76 ° 41 ′ 44" E
K6	Chogolisa	7668 m	35 ° 36 ′ 44 "N, 76 ° 34 ′ 15" E
K12	K12	7428 m	35 ° 17 ′ 24 ″ N, 77 ° 00 ′ 00 ″ E
K13	Dansam	6666 m	35 ° 12 'N, 76 ° 45' E
K32	Mamostong Kangri	7,516 m	35 ° 8 ′ 27 "N, 77 ° 34 ′ 39" E

 Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

The problem is that subsequent researchers did not stick to Montgomery's system. The Great Trigonometric Survey listed the mountains of the Karakoram as Karakuram (sic) No. “N” led. The numbers used for this, however, do not correspond to Montgomery's original numbering. B. the number Karakuram No. 13 , the Gasherbrum I the number Karakuram No. 9 , the Chogolisa number Karakuram No. 8 . Presumably the name of the mountain K6 goes back to this numbering.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biographical treatise by Robert Hamilton Vetch: Montgomerie, Thomas George in the Dictionary of National Biography
2. ^ Clements R. Markham: A Memoir on the Indian Surveys . (PDF; 60.6 MB) 2nd edition WH Allen & Co., London 1878. Digitized at archive.org
3. ↑ Derek Waller: The Pundits. The University Press of Kentucky, Kentucky 1990, ISBN 0-8131-1666-X ( books.google.de ).
4. ↑ Wolf Donner: Into the Forbidden Land: Early Travelers in Nepal . 1st edition. Pro Business, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86805-592-4 , pp. 105 ff .
5. ↑ List of Fellows of the Royal Society (PDF; 1.1 MB)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Sketch of K2 . Royal Geographic Society Archives. Archived from the original on April 17, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 23, 2012. 
7. ↑ The coordinate refers to the main summit of Haramukh.
8. ↑ Filippo de Filippi: Karakoram and western Himalaya 1909, an account of the expedition of HRH Prince Luigi Amadeo of Savoy, duke of the Abruzzi . With a foreword by Luigi Amedeo di Savoia. Dutton, New York 1912, pp. 47 f . ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
9. ^ ^{A b} Henry Hubert Hayden, Sidney Gerald Burrard: A Sketch of the Geography and Geology of the Himalaya Mountains and Tibet . 1908, p. 16 ff . ( Text archive - Internet Archive ).
10. ↑ Kenneth Mason: Karakoram Nomenclature . In: Himalayan Journal 10 . 1938. Retrieved November 10, 2012.