Brooke Dolan II

Brooke Dolan II (1908 – Chongqing, China, August 19 or 29, 1945) was an American adventurer and naturalist in the 1930s and 1940s. His father was Brooke Dolan, a wealthy American industrialist in Philadelphia. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant and captain.

Overview

Brooke Dolan II was born October 12, 1908, and educated at Princeton University and Harvard University. He was a trustee of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. He led two expeditions to China and eastern Tibet in 1931 to 1932 and 1934 to 1936. The first expedition comprised Ernst Schäfer, a German zoologist, Gordon Bowles, Otto Gneiser, and Hugo Weigold. They were the first Americans ever to meet a Dalai Lama. They are considered to have gone beyond their authority in leading the Tibetan government to believe the United States had given international political recognition to Tibet. Photographs taken by Dolan and Tolstoy on their expedition were published in A Portrait of Lost Tibet by Rosemary Jones Tung.

After the Tibetan expedition Dolan transferred from the OSS to the Army Air Forces and joined the United States Military Observer Group in Yunnan, China. Dolan died in Chongqing, China. According to some accounts, he was killed on an OSS mission to rescue downed Allied bomber crews; according to other accounts, he took his own life on August 19, 1945.