Henry Strachey (explorer)

Tibetan surveys

In 1846, while a lieutenant of the 66th Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, Strachey explored the Tibetan regions surrounding Lakes Manasarovar and Rakshastal. He found a channel between the lakes, suggesting that Manasarovar, and not Rakshastal, was the source of the Sutlej River. Strachey's brother Richard, with J. E. Winterbottom, continued the exploration of the lakes in 1848.

In 1847 Strachey was appointed to a boundary commission of Jammu and Kashmir led by Alexander Cunningham. The third member was Thomas Thomson. The commission was set up to fix the boundary between Tibet and Ladakh. Raja Gulab Singh's forces had previously annexed Ladakh and invaded Tibet in 1841. The British deemed it important to formalise the boundary so as to prevent any future conflicts. The commission based itself at Leh, Ladakh. It eventually drafted a description of the boundary and retired.

In 1849, Henry Strachey and his brother Richard Strachey briefly entered Tibet by following the Niti Pass out of Garhwal. Their route included Tholing Monastery and Hanle.

Strachey's Tibetan surveys won him the Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Medal in 1852.

Family

On 6 September 1859, by this time a captain of the 66th Goorkha Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry, he married Joanna Catherine, daughter of Rudolphe Cloete, of Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa. The wedding was in Claremont, Cape Town. Their only child was Julia Charlotte, who in 1884 married barrister William Chance (2 July 1853 – 9 April 1935), son of James Timmins Chance of the glassmaking company Chance Brothers. Julia was an amateur sculptor, and a supporter of the Arts and Crafts movement. The couple's house, Orchards in Surrey, was designed by architect Edwin Lutyens. In 1902, Sir William Chance succeeded his father to the Chance baronetcy.

Writings

• "Physical Geography of Western Tibet", Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 23, 1853.

References

References

1. {{cite DNB12. Hunt. William
2. (2001). "Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies". Publisher Wisdom Publications.
3. MacGregor, John. (1972). "Tibet: A Chronicle of Exploration". Routledge and Kegan Paul.
4. Waller, Derek J.. (2004). "The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia". University Press of Kentucky.
5. Prem Singh Jina. (1994). "Tourism in Ladakh Himalaya". Indus Publishing.
6. Prem Singh Jina. (1995). "Famous Western Explorers to Ladakh". Indus Publishing.
7. (1914). "Year-Book and Record". [[Royal Geographical Society]].
8. (3 November 1859). "Marriages.". [[The Times]].
9. (10 April 1935). "Obituary. Sir William Chance". The Times.
10. Brown, Jane. (1996). "Lutyens and the Edwardians". Viking.
11. (1 September 1949). "Obituary". The Times.