Alexander Gerard (explorer)

Alexander Gerard (17 February 1792 – 15 December 1839) was a Scottish army officer in India, and an early surveyor and explorer of the Himalayas.

He was born in Aberdeen on 17 February 1792. His father was Gilbert Gerard, a theological writer; his grandfather was Alexander Gerard, a church minister and academic. He was brother of James Gilbert Gerard, a surgeon in India, and Patrick Gerard, a writer on geographical science in India.

In 1808 he graduated from King's College, Aberdeen, and in that year he received a Bengal cadetship. He was appointed ensign in the 13th Bengal Native Infantry on 9 September 1808.

He was employed in the survey of the route from Dehli to Lahore in 1812. In 1814 he was promoted to lieutenant, and he surveyed the Saharanpur district, which he completed in 1819. He was surveyor of the Narmada valley in 1825, and surveyor in Malwa and Rajputana in 1826 and 1827.

During the surveys in the Himalayas he ascended heights previously believed to be inaccessible, and penetrated into Tibet as far as the frontier pickets of Chinese would allow. Our earliest notions of the geological structure and remains of the Himalayan ranges come from his work.

In 1817–18 Gerard, setting out from Sabathu, explored the Sutlej valley in the Himalayas with Dr. George Govan (1787–1865). In 1818 he and his brother James, in a two-month journey, crossed the Sutlej and followed the Spiti Valley to Shipki La.

In 1821 he performed the most important of his Himalayan journeys. Leaving Sabathu, he ascended the Himalayan upper ranges, carefully noting the places inhabited by the way, establishing height above sea level with a barometer, checked by trigonometrical measurements wherever practicable, and noting temperatures, natural productions, and character of the people in places previously supposed to be uninhabited and uninhabitable.

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