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'''Colonel Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich''', KCMG, KCIE, CB (1843-1929) was a British geographer and president of the Royal Geographic Society. He is best known as chief surveyor of the frontiers of British India and author of numerous books, of which the textbook ''Political Frontiers and Boundary Making'' is still referred to today.
[[File:Thomas Holdich.jpg|thumb|Colonel Thomas Holdich.]]
[[Colonel]] '''Sir Thomas Hungerford Holdich''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCMG|KCIE|CB|FRGS}} (13 February 1843 – 2 November 1929) was an [[England|English]] geographer and president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]. He is best known as Superintendent of Frontier Surveys in [[British India]], [[Arbitral tribunal|arbiter]] in the [[Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Williams|first1=Glyn|title=The desert and the dream: A study of Welsh colonization in Chubut 1865 – 1915|date=1975|publisher=University of Wales Press|location=Cardiff|isbn=978-0-7083-0579-9|page=140|chapter=Cwm Hyfryd}}</ref> and author of numerous books, including ''The Gates of India'', ''The Countries of the King's Award'' and ''Political Frontiers and Boundary Making''.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title= Obituary: Sir Thomas Holdich – A Maker of Frontiers |work=[[The Times]] |date=4 November 1929 |page=14 }}</ref>
 
==Life==
Born in [[Dingley, UnitedNorthamptonshire]], Kingdom[[England]] to the Rev. Thomas Peach Holdich, he was educated at [[Godolphin and Latymer School|Godolphin Grammar School]] and the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich|Royal Military CollegeAcademy]], obtaining a commission in the [[Royal Engineers]] in 1862. He saw active service in the [[Bhutan]] expedition of 1865, the Abysinnian[[1868 Expedition to Abyssinia|Abyssinian campaign of 1878-791867–68]] and the [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]] of 1878-791878–79.
 
During peacetime, heHoldich was largely occupied with the survey of India,. andHe servedwas the chief surveyor on the [[Afghan Boundary Commission]] of 18841884–86. 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.<ref>[[Robert Gascoyne-86Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury|Salisbury, Robert]] (2020). ''William Simpson and the Crisis in Central Asia, 1884-5''. {{ISBN|978-1-5272-7047-3}}</ref> 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 also engaged byawarded the governments[[Founder's Medal]] of Argentinathe and[[Royal Geographical ChileSociety]] in 18921887 toin definerecognition theof boundaryhis alongwork on the AndesAfghan Mountainsfrontier.
 
Holdich was also member of the British tribunal engaged in [http://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_IX/37-49.pdf ''The Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case''] by the governments of [[Argentina]] and [[Chile]] in 1902 to [[Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case|arbitrate the boundary]] along the [[Andes| Andes Mountains]]. For this service he was appointed a Knight Commander of the [[Order of St Michael and St George]] (KCMG) in December 1902.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27503 |date=12 December 1902 |page=8589}}</ref>
On his retirement 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". In retirement, he wrote and lectured extensively on geographical issues, and was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographic Society. He served as president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1916-18.▼
 
▲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". InHe retirement,was he wrote and lectured extensivelyplaced on geographicalthe issues,Retired andlist waswith awardedan theIndian Goldpension Medal13 of the Royal GeographicFebruary Society1900.<ref>{{London HeGazette|issue=27167|page=1173| serveddate=20 asFebruary president of the Royal Geographical Society from 1916-18.1900}}</ref>
Sir Thomas was married to Ada Vanrenan, and had two daughters and one son. He died in 1929 at his home at Parklands in the United Kingdom at the age of 86.
 
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 [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|eleventh edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'']].
 
<blockquote>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)<ref>Political Frontiers and Boundary Making (London:Macmillan
and Co., 1916 p.2.</ref></blockquote>
 
His thought on international boundaries emphasized a need for them to be, or have the potential to become, militarily strong.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Geography of Frontiers and Boundaries |last=Prescott |first=J.R.V. |publisher=Hutchinson University Library |year=1965 |pages=14}}</ref>
 
Holdich died in 1929 at his home at Parklands in [[Merrow, Surrey]], near [[Guildford]], 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.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Tibet, the Mysterious'' by Sir Thomas Holdich|journal=Journal of the Royal Colonial Institute|date=February 1907|issue=3, Session 1906–1907|pages=194–195|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eDo4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA194}}</ref>
* 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. [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/afghanenglish/159 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.
* {{cite book |title=The Empire and the century |publisher=John Murray |location=London |pages=651–662 |chapter=[[s:The Empire and the century/The Frontier Question|The Frontier Question]]|year=1905}}
 
==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.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Obituaries |date=22 December 1902 |page=6 |issue=36957}}</ref>
 
==References==
{{Reflist}}
 
==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
* [http://www.holdiches.com/sir-thomas-hungerford-holdich-1843-1929/ Biography] from the Holdich Family History Society
* [https://www.jstor.org/pss/1784003 The Geographical Journal] – Obituary, Vol LXXV, No 3, March 1930
* {{Gutenberg author | id=41957| name=Thomas Holdich}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Holdich}}
 
{{RGSPresidents}}
 
{{Authority control}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holdich, Thomas}}
[[Category:1843 births]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:English geographers]]
[[Category:Royal Engineers officers]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Afghan War]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Abyssinian War]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Indology]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire]]
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]
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