Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen (6 July 1834 – 2 December 1923), known until 1854 as Henry Haversham Austen, was an English topographer, surveyor, naturalist and geologist.

He explored the mountains in the Himalayas and surveyed the glaciers at the base of K2, also known as Mount Godwin-Austen. Geographer Kenneth Mason called Godwin-Austen "probably the greatest mountaineer of his day". He also remains the most important investigator of the terrestrial molluscs of the Indian subcontinent.

Early life

The eldest son of the eighteen children of the geologist Robert Austen, who in 1854 added Godwin to his surname by royal licence, Henry Haversham was probably born at Ogwell House, near Newton Abbot, Devon, where his father had recently taken up residence. His father's family, landowners in Cheshire and Surrey since the 12th century, had a history as merchant venturers, soldiers, scholars, and collectors. His grandfather, Sir Henry Edmund Austen (1785–1871), was a High Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenant for Surrey and a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to King William IV. His great-grandfather, Robert Austen (died 1797), married Lady Frances Annesley, a descendant of Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey.

Henry's mother, Maria Elizabeth Godwin, was the only child of Major-General Sir Henry Godwin (1784–1853), who had fought in the First Anglo-Burmese War and who commanded the British and Indian forces in the Second. His brother Edmund Godwin Austen played first-class cricket for Canterbury in New Zealand.

Henry was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford, and then from 1848 to 1851 at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. and was a contemporary of the future Lord Roberts.

Life in Burma and India

In 1851, after leaving the Royal Military College, Austen was commissioned into the 24th Foot. In early 1853 he arrived in Burma at the end of the Second Anglo-Burmese war, serving as aide-de-camp to his maternal grandfather, General Sir Henry Godwin. The latter died unexpectedly in 1853, and as a result his daughter's family added the name of Godwin to their own, becoming Godwin-Austen. The relationship is seen by one biographer as probably an obstacle to Godwin-Austen's advancement in India. In April 1857 Godwin-Austen was posted to Kashmir. In June 1858 he married Kudidje in a ceremony near Budrawar; from the British point of view the marriage was legal as it satisfied Muslim conditions. In November 1858, Godwin-Austen was seriously injured in an attack near Udhampur which left him unconscious, and in April 1859 he took a year's home leave, joining the Second Battalion of his regiment in England. While there, he became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

From 1857 to June 1860 he had worked for the Survey of India, mainly around the Kazi Nag, Pir Panjal, and Marau-Warwan regions. He was given a permanent post in the Trigonometrical Survey and in 1860 mapped Shigar and the lower Saltoro Valley of Baltistan as far as the south face of K1, Masherbrum. In 1861, he traversed the Skoro La, beyond Skardu and Shigar, where he surveyed the Karakoram glaciers: Baltoro, Punmah, Biafo, Chiring, almost as far as the Old Mustagh Pass and Hispar. On this expedition, he climbed at least 1000 m above Urdukas on the Baltoro Glacier, and fixed the height and position of K2 for the first time.

thumb|left|Illustration by Godwin-Austen of [[Paradoxornis nipalensis which he described as Suthora daflaensis]]

Although he gave great attention to geology and topography, his greatest interest lay in collecting non-marine molluscs and in identifying birds. He published his Birds of Assam (1870–1878) and described a number of birds for the first time, some with Arthur Hay, 9th Marquess of Tweeddale. Most of these notes were published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Godwin-Austen sometimes drew illustrations of the new bird species. He was particularly active in ornithology after 1863, when he was posted in the eastern Himalayas as part of the political mission to Bhutan headed by Ashley Eden. He surveyed the Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills, and in 1875 joined an expedition into the Daphla Hills.

Retirement

In 1877, Godwin-Austen retired from the Trigonometrical Survey of India with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, as his health was beginning to deteriorate, but back in England he recovered. In 1881, he married lastly Jessie, daughter of John Harding Robinson, an Examiner in the House of Lords. She was 20 and he 47. They remained married until his wife's death in 1913, He served as a justice of the peace from 1885.

When his father died in 1884, Godwin-Austen inherited an estate and substantial house at Shalford, in Surrey. The estate no longer provided sufficient income to fund such a house. Unable to sell land because of an entail, he was declared bankrupt in 1899, although through the sale of the house he had discharged the bankruptcy by 1902. Thereafter he lived at another property on the estate, Nore House near Godalming.

Legacy

thumb|Gravestone in the family plot in Shalford Cemetery, near Guildford, UK

The second-highest mountain in the world, the Karakoram peak K2 in the Himalayas, was at one time proposed to be named after him to commemorate his exploration of the region. The proposal was rejected due to the general principle that personal names were unsuitable for Himalayan summits. However, Godwin-Austen's name is found on some maps, including the Times Mid-Century Atlas (1959). His The land and freshwater molluscs of India has been described as "an epoch-making work on Indian land molluscs, also indispensable in the study of all Oriental and Ethiopian faunas." The mollusc genera Austenia G. Nevill, 1878, Godwinia Sykes, 1900, and several Indian species have been named in his honour. Godwin-Austen is also commemorated in the scientific names of two species of lizards: Pachydactylus austeni and Pseudocalotes austeniana.

His son R.A. Godwin-Austen was also a career army officer and was later a supporter of the "saintly mafia" called Ferguson's Gang, dedicated to saving historically important buildings. H. H. Godwin-Austen's nephew, General Sir Alfred Godwin-Austen (1889–1963), was a divisional commander of the East African and Western Desert campaigns during the Second World War.

Godwin-Austen's son by Kudidje, Edward, who had been adopted by a family named Milner, became a civil engineer in Hyderabad State and elsewhere. In 1879 he married Emma Theresa Smith, and they had fifteen children. Edward Henry Hastings Milner died in Bombay in 1917, aged only 59, but his widow lived until 1958.

Selected publications

  • Notes on the Pangong Lake District of Ladakh (1864)
  • Birds of Assam (1870–1878)
  • 15px Land and freshwater mollusca of India, including South Arabia, Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Pegu, Tenasserim, Malaya Peninsula, Ceylon and other islands of the Indian Ocean; Supplementary to Masers Theobald and Hanley's Conchologica Indica (Taylor and Francis, London, VI+257+ 442+65 pp., 165 pls, published in parts, 1882–1920:
  • Volume 1 + plates; 1882: pp. I–VI, 1–66, pls. 1–12; 1883: pp. 67–164, pls. 13–42; 1884: pls. 43–51; 1886: pp. 165–206; 1887: pls. 52–62; 1888: pp. 207–257 (as Volume I, 1889)
  • volume 2 + plates; 1897: pp. 1–46, pls. 63–69; 1898: pp. 47–86, pls. 70–82; 1899: pp. 87–146, pls. 83–100; 1907: pp. 147–238, pls. 101–117; 1910: pp. 239–310, pls. 118–132; 1914: pp. 311–442, pls. 133–158; (as Volume II, 1914)
  • volume 3 + plates: 1920: pp. 1–65, pls. 159–165; (as Volume III, 1920)
  • 15px Blanford W. T. & Godwin-Austen H. H. 1908. Mollusca. Testacellidae and Zonitidae The Fauna of British India, including Burma and Ceylon

Bibliography

References

  • Portrait of H.H. Godwin-Austen
  • Watercolour of the Baltoro Glacier by H.H. Godwin-Austen