Alexander Ross

Research Topic

Life of Major Geoffrey Langlands (1917-2019): The Raj's Last Man Standing in Pakistan
 

Born in Hull, the orphaned Langlands survived the Spanish Flu pandemic and Zeppelin bombings of WWI.  In 1939 he became a Commando and helped capture one of the Nazis’ Enigma encryption machines, which Alan Turing used to reverse the tide of World War II. During the otherwise disastrous Raid on Dieppe, his unit was one of the few to succeed in taking out the 170mm German guns which threatened the plans for D-Day.
 

In 1945 he was transferred to India where he saved many lives during the bloody Partition of India.  Realizing the futility of war, Langlands envisaged a more effective approach which led to him educating future leaders of Pakistan over a period of twenty-five years, and then founding a school in the tribal frontier lands of Pakistan which educated and empowered thousands of Pakistani boys and girls who subsequently defied the Taliban.  According to Prime Minister Imran Khan, this earned Langlands the moniker “Pakistan’s Teacher.”

Supervisor: Professor Faisal Devji