[troutman]

I select in the Explorer/Discoveror category, SIR FRANCIS YOUNGHUSBAND:



I am a direct descendant of Younghusband (my mother's maiden name). He had some wacky new age ideas, and was part of a massacre of 600-700 Tibetans, but he did have an interesting career. I think he also founded the scouting movement along with Lord Baden Powell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Francis_Younghusband

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, KCSI, KCIE (31 May 1863 - 31 July 1942, Dorset[1]) was a British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer. He is remembered chiefly for his travels in the Far East and Central Asia—especially the 1904 British invasion of Tibet, which he led—and for his writings on Asia and foreign policy. Younghusband held positions including British commissioner to Tibet and President of the Royal Geographical Society.

In 1886-1887, on leave from his regiment, Younghusband made an expedition through Manchuria, crossing the Gobi Desert and pioneering a route from Kashgar and India through the uncharted Mustagh Pass.[2] For this achievement he was elected the youngest member of the Royal Geographic Society and received the society's gold medal.

The Great Game, between Britain and Russia, continued beyond the turn of the century. Younghusband, among other explorers such as Sven Hedin, Nikolai Przhevalsky and Sir Aurel Stein, participated in earnest.[3]

Rumors of Russian expansion into the Hindu Kush and a Russian presence in Tibet prompted the Viceroy of IndiaLord Curzon to appoint Younghusband, by then a Major, to serve as British commissioner to Tibet from 1902-1904. In 1903-1904, under orders from Curzon, Younghusband, jointly with John Claude White, the Political Officer for Sikkim, led a British expedition to Tibet, whose putative aim was to settle disputes over the Sikkim-Tibet border but whose true aim was to establish British hegemony in Tibet; the expedition controversially became (by exceeding instructions from London) a de facto invasion and occupation of Tibet.[4] About one hundred miles inside Tibet, on the way to Gyangzê, thence to the capital of Lhasa, a confrontation outside the hamlet of Guru led to the massacre, by the expedition, of 600-700 Tibetan militia.[5] The British force was supported by King Ugyen Wangchuck of Bhutan, who was knighted in return for his services.

In 1904, Younghusband received the title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire; and in 1917, the superior title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India.

Later in life my mother became an accomplished artist, and painted a series of abtract paintings on Tibetan themes. She became a supporter of the Canadian Tibetan society, and has met the Dalai Lama on a couple of occasions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/...isode_74.shtml

Younghusband was one of the first to champion the idea of climbing Everest.

http://www.tibet.ca/

http://www.tibet.org/Resources/TSG/G...ib.friend.html