Geoffrey Langlands

Geoffrey Douglas Langlands CMG, MBE, HI, SPk (21 October 1917 – 2 January 2019) was a British educationalist and former army officer who spent most of his life teaching in and leading schools in Pakistan, instructing many of the country's elite.

In World War II, he joined the British Army as a volunteer and became a commando, taking part in the Dieppe Raid. He was posted to British India in 1944 and opted for the Indian Army, where he worked to keep the peace during the Partition of British India in 1947. He subsequently transferred to the Pakistani Army where he trained army officers.

At the invitation of President Ayub Khan in the 1960s, he joined the so-called "Eton of Pakistan", Aitchison College in Lahore. After 25 years there, he left to lead a military high school, Cadet College Razmak. He ended his career by taking on a new school in Chitral and raising it to internationally high standards; he continued to lead it into his 90s, when it was renamed in his honour Langlands School and College.

Early life Langlands was born in 21 October 1917 in Yorkshire, with a twin brother, in Hull, England, to a father employed in an Anglo-American company and a mother who was a classical folk dance instructor. His father died in the 1918 flu pandemic that killed millions worldwide. His mother then took her children to her parents' home in Bristol.

She died of cancer ten years later, as soon thereafter did the children's grandfather, His older brother received a scholarship to an orphan school in Bristol, and a family friend helped secure positions for the other children.

Career Military career (1939-1953) In July 1935, Langlands completed his A Level education and began his teaching career in London, the following year at age 18. In September 1936, he was a mathematics and science teacher to second grade students in a school in Croydon. After Bangalore, Langlands was stationed in Dehradun. He was promoted to temporary captain on 28 July 1945, subsequently transferring to the 14th Punjab Regiment.

Teaching career

Langlands began his career in Pakistan by working as an instructor for the country's newly created army. He selected and trained officers for approximately six years. Upon the completion of the contract with Pakistan Army, British Army troops began to leave the country, and Langlands had to decide what to do next. Ayub Khan, then President of Pakistan, asked him to stay and teach, which he immediately agreed to do.

He devoted the next 25 years to the so-called "Eton of Pakistan", Aitchison College in Lahore, and rising to be the college's dean and headmaster of its prep school. and served until September 1989.

In late 1989, Langlands took charge of the first private school in Chitral, which was later renamed Langlands School and College in his honour. grew steadily under his leadership. From 80 pupils it grew to 800, about a third girls, and many won scholarships to universities.

Langlands disagreed with some of the changes his successor - also a British citizen - began to put in place. He attempted to prevent Carey Schofield from doing her work by asking a former pupil, Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, the Interior Minister, to deny her a work visa. Eventually scores of the college staff boarded a school bus for the 1000 km drive to Lahore, where they met with Langlands and persuaded him to allow Schofield to continue her work.

Death and legacy Geoffrey Langlands died at the age of 101 in a hospital in Lahore on 2 January 2019 following a brief illness. Al-Jazeera called him one of the country's "most respected educators" The BBC said his "death [sent] a whole country into mourning" Other former students include Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Aleem Khan. Hilal-e-Imtiaz (HI; 2011) Sitara-i-Imtiaz (1987) Sitara-i-Pakistan (SPk, 2004)