Alexander Heron

Alexander Macmillan Heron (31 July 1884 – 1971) was a Scottish geologist who became Director of the Geological Survey of India. He participated in the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition following which he produced a geological map of the Everest region of Tibet.

Early life and professional career Alexander Heron was born in Duddingston, Edinburgh on 31 July 1884, son of William Heron, a coal agent for William Baird & Co of Garthsherrie, who later became a macer (court usher), and Joan Heron, née Macmillan. He graduated from University of Edinburgh in engineering in 1906 and in that year he joined the Geological Survey of India. In 1911, in South Stoneham, Hampshire, he married Margaret Kirsopp of Musselburgh and in 1915 they had a daughter, Marjorie Edgware Heron. Returning to study at the University of Edinburgh, he was granted his D.Sc. in 1919. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1925 and, succeeding Sir Lewis Leigh Fermor, he became the Survey's director in 1936 until stepping down from that post in 1939. From 1934 to 1937 he was president of the Calcutta Geographical Society (which in 1951 became the Geographical Society of India). In 1948 Heron was geological advisor for Hyderabad, where he became a mentor to the young Calamur Mahadevan. He continued publishing research papers for the Geological Survey into the 1950s and, after 23 years of geological survey in Rajasthan he published his magnum opus, "The Geology of Central Rajasthan", in 1953. He died in 1971 aged 86 while he was staying in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India.

Complaint from Lhasa While the expedition was underway, on 28 September 1921, Charles Bell, who was in Sikkim as the British diplomatic representative to Tibet, received a telegram from the Tibetan prime minister passing on a complaint from the dzongpen of Shekar. The expedition had disturbed the monks at Rongbuk Monastery and, moreover, climbers had been digging up rubies, turquoises and other precious stones.

Bell knew that no precious stones had been found but he was well attuned to Tibet culture and sympathetic with it so he understood the sensitivities. To make matters worse, a scarlet fever epidemic had indeed broken out in Tibet in late 1921.

Heron's explanation was not helpful:

Bell was infuriated and no official geologist, and certainly not Heron, would ever take part in an Everest expedition again. Moreover, officers of the Survey of India were also to be excluded.

1922 expedition

The Survey of India nominated Heron to accompany the 1922 expedition as geologist even though the Tibetan authorities had refused permission. Frederick Bailey (who in 1913 with Morshead, had explored the Tsangpo Gorge) had replaced Charles Bell as Britain's political advisor for Tibet and he continued with Bell's decision not to allow geologists. So, even though Heron joined the party at Kalimpong hoping for a last-minute reprieve, the Foreign Office in London, not wanting to cause diplomatic difficulty, instructed Charles Bruce, the leader of the expedition, not to allow Heron to participate – he had to return to Darjeeling. Despite all this Heron's discoveries were to be the foundation for the unofficial later work of Noel Odell on the 1924 expedition and Lawrence Wager on the 1933 expedition.