Person Everest; Sir; George (1790 - 1866); surveyor and military engineer Everest George Sir surveyor and military engineer 1790 - 1866 British Male Gwernvale, Brecknockshire, Wales 04 July 1790 10 Westbourne Street, Hyde Park Gardens, London 01 December 1866

Surveyor Career: Military engineer and geodesist, he went to India in 1823 to take on a mammoth task - to complete the Great Trigonometrical Survey of the sub-continent which William Lambton had begun in 1806. The survey would take up 25 years of his life and would map a huge area -almost 2,400 km from Cape Comorin in the south to the Himalayas in the north. It is said the Everest was relentless in his pursuit of accuracy and that he made countless adaptions to the surveying equipment, the methods and the calculations involved. Seven years after he wasa appointed superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey, George Everest was also made Surveyor General in India. It is known that Everest travelled to the foothills of the Himalayas as part of his work but there is no firm evidence that he actually saw the summit of the mountain which bears his name. The world's highest mountain was dubbed Peak XV but Everest's successor as Surveyor General in India, Andrew Waugh, wanted a lasting tribute to his predecessor who had done so much ground breaking work on the survey. 'Here is a mountain most probably the highest in the world without any local name that I can discover" wrote Waugh at the time, He went on to suggest a name, writing that "to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of geogrphical researech" the mountain should be called Everest. In 1865, Peak XV was officially named Mount Everest in his honour. In fact, the mountain was known as Chomoloungma in the Tibetan language and Sagamartha in Nepal Honours: CB 1861; Kt 1861 Fellow 08/03/1827 Sources: Bulloch's Roll; DNB Obituaries: Proc Roy Soc 1867-1868 vol 16 pp xi-xiv References: James R Smith, 'Sir George Everest, FRS (1790-1866)' in NR 1992 vol 46 pp 89-102, plate Sir Geoffrey Taylor, 'George Boole, FRS, 1815-1864' in NR 1956-57 vol 12 pp 44-52 R W Home, 'The Royal Society and the Empire: the colonial and Commonwealth Fellowship. Part 1. 1731-1847' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 307-332 International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) - Ottawa 1996 ISBN 0-9696035-3-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 4 Jul 1790 - 1 Dec 1866 NA1188 21/11/2001 Andyg Pmab 28/03/2023 RS_NET\JonathanB Yes http://viaf.org/viaf/27447861 42ec653d-e81b-4946-b972-84fe2cecd25f