Younghusband, Francis

Sir Francis Younghusband is universally known for his forcible entry into Lhasa in 1902. But his adventures commenced much earlier. After mountaineering in Manchuria, he began in 1887 his exciting journey through the heart of Asia, across the Gobi Desert and Chinese Turkestan to Kashgar and Yarkand, and then across the Himalayas to Srinagar. He was sent by the British to investigate Hunza raids on Kirghiz territory; he went on his famous expedition to the Pamirs, only to be summarily ordered out by the Russians; and in 1898 he was appointed political agent in the disturbed Chitral (in present-...