Editing Francis Younghusband (section)

== Indian Political Service career ==
Younghusband received a telegram from Simla, to attend the Intelligence Department (ID) to be interviewed by Foreign Secretary [[Sir Mortimer Durand]], transferred to the [[Indian Political Service]]. He served as a political officer on secondment from the British Army. He refused a request to visit Lhasa as an interpreter, disguised as a Yarkandi trader, a cover not guaranteed to fool the Russians, after [[Andrew Dalgleish (spy)|Andrew Dalgleish]], a Scots merchant, had been hacked to death. Younghusband was accompanied by a Gurkha escort, celebrated for their ferocity in combat. The Forward policy was circumscribed by a legal offer to all travellers of peaceable security crossing borders. Departure from [[Leh]] on 8 August 1889 on the caravan route took them up the mountain pass of [[Shimshal]] towards Hunza, his aim being to restore the tea trade to [[Xinjiang]] and prevent any further raids into [[Kashmir]]. Colonel Durand from [[Gilgit]] joined him. Younghusband probed the villages to gauge the reception: calculating it was a den of thieves, they ascended the steep ravine. The Hunza was barred to them, a trap was sprung; the parley terms took him inside to negotiate. The nervous reception over, they were all relieved to find safety; Younghusband wanted to know who was waylaying innocent civilian traders, and why. The ruler, [[Safdar Ali]] extended a letter of welcome to his Kashmiri kingdom; the British investigated whence came the Russian infiltrators under Agent Gromchevsky. Further south at [[Ladakh]], he kept a close watch on their movements. Reluctantly, Younghusband dined with the Cossack leaders, who divulged the secrets of their common rivalry. Gromchevsky explained that the Raj had invited enmity for meddling in the Black Sea ports. The Russian displayed little grasp of strategy, but basic raw courage; he betrayed the confidence of [[Abdul Rahman]] as no friend to the British. Younghusband tentatively concluded that their possessions at [[Bukhara|Bokhara]] and [[Samarkand]] were vulnerable. Having drunk large quantities of vodka and brandy, the Cossacks presented arms in cordial salute and they parted in peace. Woefully unprepared for winter, the British garrison at Ladakh refused them entry.

Younghusband finally arrived at [[Gulmit]] to a 13-gun salute. In khaki, the envoy greeted Safdar Ali at the marquee on the Karakoram Highway, the men of Hunza kneeling at their ruler's feet. This was colonial diplomacy, based on protocol and etiquette, but Younghusband had not come for merely trivial discussions. Reinforced by Durand's troops, Younghusband's arguments were to prevent criminal looting, murder, and highway robbery. Impervious to reason though Safdar Ali was, Younghusband was not prepared to allow him to laugh at the Raj. A demonstration of firepower "caused quite a sensation", he wrote in his diaries. The British major was disdainful, but content when he<!-- =Younghusband? --> left on 23 November to return to India, which he reached by Christmas.

In 1890, Younghusband was sent on a mission to [[Chinese Turkestan]], accompanied by [[George Macartney (British consul)|George Macartney]] as interpreter. He spent the winter in [[Kashgar]], where he left Macartney as British consul.<ref>''Dictionary of National Biography'' "Sir George Macartney"</ref> Younghusband sought to investigate the Pamir Gap, a possible Russian entry route to India, but first needed to address issues with the Chinese authorities in Kashgar. It was for this reason he recruited a Mandarin interpreter, junior officer George Macartney, to accompany his missions into the frozen mountains. They wintered in Kashgar as a listening post, meeting in conference with the Russian [[Nikolai Petrovsky]], who had always resisted trade with Xinjiang ([[Sinkiang]]). The Russian agent was well-informed about British India, but proved unscrupulous. Believing he had succeeded, Younghusband did not reckon on Petrovsky's deal with the ''[[Taotai]]'' of Xinjiang.

In July 1891, they were still in the Pamirs when news reached them that the Russians intended to send troops "to note and report with the Chinese and Afghans". At [[Bozai Gumbaz]] in the [[Little Pamir]] on 12 August he encountered Cossack soldiers, who forced him to leave the area.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Riddick | first = John | title = The history of British India | year = 2006 | page=82 | publisher = Praeger | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Es6x4u_g19UC&q=Riddick&pg=PA82 | isbn = 978-0-313-32280-8}}</ref> This was one of the incidents which provoked the [[Hunza-Nagar Campaign]]. The troop of 20 or so soldiers planted a flag on what they anticipated was unclaimed territory, 150 miles south of the Russian border. However, the British considered the area to be Afghan territory. Colonel [[:ru:Ионов, Михаил Ефремович|Yonov]], decorated with the [[Order of St George]], approached his camp to announce that the area now belonged to the Tsar. Younghusband learnt that they had raided the [[Chitral]] territory; furthermore, they had penetrated the [[Darkot Pass]] into the [[Yasin Valley]]. They were joined by eager intelligence officer Lieutenant Davison, but the British were disabused by Ivanov of British sovereignty: Younghusband remained polite, maintained protocol but hospitable to the big Russian bear hug.

During his service in Kashmir, he wrote a book called ''Kashmir'' at the request of [[Edward Mary Joseph Molyneux|Edward M. J. Molyneux]]. Younghusband's descriptions went hand in glove with Molyneux's paintings of the valley. In the book, Younghusband declared his immense admiration of the natural beauty of Kashmir and its history. Younghusband participated in the geopolitical rivalry between Britain and Russia, known as 'The Great Game,' which persisted into the 20th century before being formally concluded by the 1907 Anglo-Russian Treaty. Younghusband, among other explorers such as [[Sven Hedin]], [[Nikolay Przhevalsky]], [[Shoqan Walikhanov]] and [[Aurel Stein|Sir Marc Aurel Stein]], had participated in earnest.<ref name="Nalle">{{cite journal|author=David Nalle |date=June 2000 |title=Book Review&nbsp;– Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia |journal=[[Middle East Policy]] |volume= VII |issue=3 |publisher=Blackwell |location=Washington DC |issn=1061-1924 |url=http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol7/0006_nalle.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060601233205/http://www.mepc.org/journal_vol7/0006_nalle.asp |archive-date=1 June 2006 }}</ref> Rumours of Russian expansion into the [[Hindu Kush]] with a Russian presence in Tibet prompted the new [[Viceroy of India]] [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]] to appoint Younghusband, by then a major, British commissioner to Tibet from 1902 to 1904.

=== Expedition to Tibet ===
[[File:Lamellar coat and helmet. From Tibet, in modern-day China. 14th-17th century CE. Iron, leather, and textile. Presented by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband. Discoveries Gallery, National Museum of Scotland.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lamellar armour|Lamellar]] coat and helmet. From Tibet, in modern-day China. 14th–17th century CE. Iron, leather, and textile. Presented by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband. Discoveries Gallery, National Museum of Scotland]]

In 1903, Curzon appointed Younghusband as the head of the [[Tibet Frontier Commission]]; [[John Claude White]], the political officer of [[Sikkim]], and E. C. Wilton, served as his deputy commissioners in the commission.<ref>{{cite book|author=Patrick French|title=Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ENfKlCIqAxoC|year=2011|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-0-14-196430-0|page=269}}</ref> Younghusband subsequently led the [[British expedition to Tibet]], which had the putative aim to settle disputes over the [[Sikkim]]–Tibet border, but eventually exceeded instructions from the [[government of the United Kingdom]] and became a ''de facto'' [[invasion]] of Tibet.<ref name="Younghusband">{{cite web|title=Tibetans' fight against British invasion |publisher=En.Tibet.cn&nbsp;– China Tibet Information Center |url=http://en.tibet.cn/history/tib/t20050309_14950.htm |access-date=15 January 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071103094834/http://en.tibet.cn/history/tib/t20050309_14950.htm |archive-date=3 November 2007}}</ref> Roughly {{convert|100|mi}} inside Tibet, on the way to [[Gyantse]], thence to the capital of [[Lhasa]], a confrontation outside the hamlet of Guru led to a victory by the expedition's troops over 600–700 Tibetan soldiers.<ref>Morris, James: ''Farewell the Trumpets'' (Faber and Faber, 1979), p. 102.</ref> The expedition's troops, equipped with rifles and machine guns, overpowered the less-equipped Tibetan forces, who were armed with hoes, swords, and flintlocks. 

Ultimately, 202 men of Younghusband's expedition were killed in action while 411 died of non-combat causes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Nick Heil |author-link=Nick Heil |title=Dark Summit: The Extraordinary True Story of One of the Deadliest Seasons on Everest |url=http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/heil-2008-dark-summit-extraordinary.html
|publisher=Virgin Books Ltd |date=2008 |page=54 |isbn=978-0-7535-1359-0}}</ref> The expedition was supported by [[Ugyen Wangchuck]] of the [[Kingdom of Bhutan]] (who was to become the King of Bhutan in 1907), who was [[knight]]ed in return for his services. However, the invasion of Tibet embarrassed the British government, which desired good relations with the [[Qing dynasty]] for the sake of Britain's trade with Chinese coastal settlements. Accordingly, the British government repudiated the [[Convention of Lhasa|Treaty of Lhasa]], signed by Younghusband and Tibetan leaders, due to concerns over its impact on relations with the Qing dynasty and trade with Chinese coastal regions.

In 1891, Younghusband received the Companion of the [[Order of the Indian Empire]],<ref name="IndianBio">{{cite IBD1915|wstitle= Younghusband, Lt.-Colonel Sir Francis Edward |volume= 25.2 |pages= 470-471 |year=1915|short=}}</ref> and then he was awarded the honour of Knight Commander of the [[Order of the Star of India]] in December 1904.<ref name=List>Great Britain. India Office {{google books|b2NPAAAAMAAJ|The India List and India Office List for 1905|page=145}}</ref> He was also awarded the [[Kaisar-I-Hind Medal]] (gold) in 1901,<ref name="IndianBio" /> and the [[Gold Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society]] in 1905.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://rsgs.org/inspiring-people/medals-awards/scottish-geographical-medal/|title= Scottish Geographical Medal|publisher= Royal Scottish Geographical Society|access-date= 26 August 2015|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20151017024018/http://rsgs.org/inspiring-people/medals-awards/scottish-geographical-medal/|archive-date= 17 October 2015|url-status= dead}}</ref> In 1906, Younghusband settled in [[Kashmir]] as the British Resident representative before returning to [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]] in 1909,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ghosts of Empire|first=Kwasai|last=Kwarteng|publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]]|isbn=9781408829004|date=28 May 2012}}</ref> where he was an active member of many clubs and societies. In 1908, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. During the [[World War I|First World War]], his patriotic [[Fight for Right Movement|Fight for Right]] campaign commissioned the song "[[And did those feet in ancient time|Jerusalem]]".