Frank Ludlow

Frank Ludlow OBE (10 August 1885 – 25 March 1972 ) was an English officer stationed in the British Mission at Lhasa and a naturalist.

Life He was born in Chelsea, London and studied at West Somerset County School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Ludlow received a Bachelor of Arts from Cambridge in natural sciences in 1908. During this time he studied botany under Professor Marshal Ward, father of Frank Kingdon-Ward. He taught at Sind College Karachi (where he became vice principal and professor of biology and lecturer in English).

During World War I he was commissioned into the Indian Army Reserve of Officers as a Second Lieutenant 22 July 1916 and was attached to the 1st battalion, 97th Deccan Infantry 31 January 1917. He was promoted Lieutenant 22 July 1917.

After the war he went into the Indian Education Service.

In the Birthday Honours 1927 (London Gazette 3 June 1927) he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In 1927 he retired to Srinagar, Kashmir and travelled extensively in the Himalayas including Tibet and Kashmir. In 1929 he met George Sherriff while staying in Kashgar with the consul general Frederick Williamson. He later took charge of the British Mission in Lhasa from 1942 to 1943. During his time in India he studied natural history and collected birds and botanical specimens.

He collected nearly 7000 bird specimens which are now in the Natural History Museum. The species Alcippe ludlowi, Bhutanitis ludlowi and several other taxa including a subspecies of hedgehog (originally described as Paraechinus ludlowi Thomas) Paraechinus aethiopicus ludlowi Thomas from Hit, Iraq are named after him.