Tom Longstaff

Longstaff was the eldest son of Lt-Col. Llewellyn W. Longstaff OBE of Wimbledon, the first and most generous supporter of Captain Scott's National Antarctic Expedition.{{cite journal | title = Obituary: Dr T. G. Longstaff | journal =Geographical Journal| date=September 1965| first =Eric | last = Shipton | issn= 0016-7398 |volume =#130 |issue= 3 | pages= 443–444 | jstor =1794819| access-date = 9 July 2024 |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/1794819 }} His brother was Frederick Longstaff and Katherine his sister married Felix Wedgwood, the author and mountaineer who was killed in action during the First World War.{{cite book | title = The Guiding Spirit | date=1986| first1 =Andrew. J. |last1 =Kauffman | first2= William L.| last2 =Putnam | isbn = 9780969162124 |publisher =Footprint Publishing |pages= 223 | access-date = | url = }} Katherine was also an active mountaineer, becoming the president of the Ladies' Alpine Club for 1929-1931.{{cite journal | journal = The Journal of the Ladies' Alpine Club | date = 1975 | title= Lists of Presidents, Hon. Secretaries, Hon. Treasurers, Hon. Librarians, Hon. Editors, 1907-1975| pages = 4}}

Longstaff was educated at Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford, and St Thomas' Hospital, London.

Longstaff was commissioned into the 1/7th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment in 1914 and served on the General Staff at Army Headquarters, Simla, 1915–1916. He was Assistant Commandant of the Gilgit Corps of Scouts, Frontier Militia, and Special Assistant at Fort Gupis to the Political Agent in Gilgit, from 1916, and was promoted Captain in 1917, retiring from the service in 1918.

During the Second World War, he served with the 7th and 13th Battalion of the KRRC from 1939 to 1941.

File:1922 Everest expedition at Base Camp.jpg,{{cite book | title = The Assault on Mount Everest, 1922 | date=1924| first =Charles Granville | last = Bruce |publisher =Longmans, Green & Co |pages= | access-date = 10 July 2024 | url = https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61083/61083-h/61083-h.htm }} facing page 46 "The Expedition at base Camp." Left to right, back row: Henry Morshead, Geoffrey Bruce, John Noel, Arthur Wakefield, Howard Somervell, John Morris, Teddy Norton. Front row: George Mallory, George Finch,Tom Longstaff, Charles Bruce, Bill Strutt, Colin Crawford.]]

Longstaff climbed in the Alps, the Caucasus,{{cite journal | title = New Expeditions in 1903 : Caucasus | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1903| issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#21 | pages= 567–574 | access-date = 11 July 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1903_files/AJ%201903%20Vol%2021%20556-580%20Expeditions.pdf#page=12 }} Rocky Mountains, Greenland, Spitsbergen, Himalayas and the Selkirks{{cite book | title = The Selkirk Mountains : a guide for mountain climbers and pilgrims | date=1912| first =Arthur Oliver| last =Wheeler |publisher =Stovel Company |pages= | access-date = 10 July 2024 | url = https://archive.org/details/selkirkmountains00whee/page/n159/mode/2up?q=longstaff }} (with Wheeler).

Before the Great War, he travelled in Tibet in 1905, ascended Trisul in the Himalayas, 1907,{{cite journal | title = Mountaineering in Garhwal | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1908| first =Tom | last = Longstaff | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#24 |issue= 180 | pages= 107–133 | access-date = 9 July 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1908_files/AJ%201908%20Vol%2024%20107-%20133%20Longstaff%20Garhwal.pdf }} and in 1908 he was awarded the Gill Memorial by the Royal Geographical Society for his work in the Himalaya and Tibet.

He went on to explore the Siachen Glacier and, with Athur Morris Slingsby, he discovered the peaks of Teram Kangri in 1909.{{cite journal | title = The Saltoro Pass | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1911| first =Tom | last = Longstaff | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#25 |issue=102 | pages= 485–488 | access-date = 10 July 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1911_files/AJ%201911%20Vol%2025%20485-488%20Longstaff%20Saltoro.pdf }} Together with Slingsby from the 56th Rifles (Frontier Force) where the two sepoys (soldiers), Gulab Khan and Attar Khan.https://pahar.in/pahar/Books%20and%20Articles/Himalaya%20and%20Karakoram/1910%20Glacier%20Exploration%20in%20Eastern%20Karakoram%20from%20GJv35%20s.pdf In the expedition for some few weeks where also Dr. Arthur Neve.

It has been written that the map he made during this journey "completely altered the topography as shown on older maps".

After the war, he took part in the 1921 Oxford University Spitsbergen expedition with Odell{{cite journal | title = The Topographical Work of the Oxford University Expedition to Spitsbergen (1921) | journal =Geographical Journal| date=November 1922| first =R. A. | last = Frazer | issn= 0016-7398 |volume =#60 |issue= 5 | pages= 321–334 | doi =10.2307/1780537| jstor =1780537| bibcode =1922GeogJ..60..321F| access-date = 10 July 2024 |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/1780537 | url-access =subscription}} and was chief medical officer and naturalist on the 1922 British Mount Everest expedition.{{cite journal | title = The 1922 Everest diary of Dr TG Longstaff | journal =Himalayan Journal| date=1983| first =William McKay | last = Aitken |volume =#39 | pages= 152–155 | access-date = 10 July 2024 |url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/39/22/the-1922-everest-diary-of-dr-t-g-longstaff/ }} He returned to Spitsbergen in 1923 and to the Garhwal Himalaya in 1927. He led the Oxford University Expedition to Greenland in 1928{{cite journal | title = The Oxford University Expedition to Greenland, 1928 | journal =Geographical Journal| date=July 1929| first1 =T. G. | last1 = Longstaff | first2 = M. R. W. | last2 = Ritchie| issn= 0016-7398 |volume =#74 |issue= 1 | pages= 61–69 | doi =10.2307/1784946| jstor =1784946| bibcode =1929GeogJ..74...61L| access-date = 10 July 2024 |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/1784946 | url-access =subscription}} and the same year was awarded the Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his work in the Himalaya, especially his discovery of the Siachen Glacier. In Greenland again, 1931 and 1934, and Baffin Island, 1934 with Wordie and others.{{cite journal | title = The Shores of Baffin Bay | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1935| first1 =T. G. | last1 = Longstaff | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#47 | pages= 49–58 | access-date = 10 July 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1935_files/AJ47%201935%2049-58%20Longstaff%20Ritchie%20Baffin%20Bay.pdf }}

When there were difficulties financing the 1938 Everest expedition Longstaff offered to underwrite the cost - on condition that the expedition was led by either Tilman or Shipton, that there would be no advance publicity and that, where possible, the climbers would each pay their own way.{{cite book | title = Everest | date=1981| first = Walter| last = Unsworth | isbn= 9780713911084 |publisher =Allen Lane |pages=212 }}

He was a well respected amateur ornithologist{{cite journal | title = Obituaries – Tom George Longstaff 15 January 1875–26 June 1964 | journal =International Journal of Avian Science| date= April 1965| first =James | last = Fisher | issn= 1474-919X |volume =#107| issue=2 | pages =259–260| doi =10.1111/j.1474-919X.1965.tb07306.x| access-date = 9 July 2024 |url = https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1965.tb07306.x }} and in 1933 he was one of eleven people{{efn|The letter was signed: {{Flatlist|* Desborough

• Hugh S. Gladstone
• Grey of Fallodon
• Julian S. Huxley (Chancellor of Oxford University)
• T. G Longstaff
• Percy R. Lowe
• P. Chalmers Mitchell
• Rothschild
• Scone M.P. (Chairman, British Trust for Ornithology)
• E. L. Turner
• H. F. Witherby (President, British Ornithologists' Union)

}}}} involved in the appeal that led to the foundation of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), an organisation for the study of birds in the British Isles.{{cite news |title=Observers of Birds |url=https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u38/downloads/home-news/2013-06/bto-letter-the-times-July-1-1933.pdf |work=The Times |date=1 July 1933}}

He lived at Achiltibuie, in the Highlands of Scotland, where he died at the age of eighty-nine on 26 June 1964.{{cite journal | title = Obituary – Tom G Longstaff | journal =Himalayan Journal| date=1964| first =Noel E. | last = Odell |volume =#25 | pages= 191–195 | access-date = 10 July 2024 |url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/25/23/obituary-4/#point3 }}

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{{Reflist}}

• Longstaff, Tom George in Who's Who: https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U57556.
• Eric Shipton, Longstaff, Tom George (1875–1964), rev., [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34594 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography], Oxford University Press, 2004

• {{Gutenberg author | id=51257 }}
• {{Librivox author |id=14961}}

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Category:1875 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:Royal Hampshire Regiment officers

Category:King's Royal Rifle Corps officers

Category:British Army personnel of World War I

Category:British Army personnel of World War II

Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford

Category:English explorers

Category:English mountain climbers

Category:Baffin Island

Category:People educated at Eton College

Category:Presidents of the Alpine Club (UK)

Category:Territorial Force officers

Category:People_from_Kingston_upon_Hull

Category:English ornithologists

Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society