About: Memoir of William Watts McNair by J. E. Howard
MEMOIR OF WM WATTS MCNAIR
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Memoir ofWILLIAM WATTS McNAIR,_Late of "Connaught House" Mussooree,Of the_INDIAN SURVEY DEPARTMENT,The First European Explorer of Kafiristan.
_BY J.E. HOWARD._
INSCRIBED TOTHE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,IN REMEMBRANCE OFA LIFE MADE HAPPIER BY ITSRECOGNITION OF RARE AND MODEST WORTH.
MEMOIR.
William Watts McNair, who was born on the 13th September, 1849, joinedthe great Indian Survey Department in September, 1867, when he wasonly eighteen years old, and served the Government of Her Majesty theQueen and Empress of India faithfully unto the day of his death, onthe 13th of August, 1889. In the official proceedings or notes of theSurveyor General of India, for August, 1889, will be found thefollowing more than merely formal notice of the services of thedeceased officer of a great but scarcely sufficiently recognisedscientific department of the magnificent Indian Empire of Her Majestythe Queen Empress. "The Surveyor General deeply regrets to announcethe death of Mr. W.W.
McNair, Surveyor, 3rd grade, from fevercontracted at Quetta while attached to the Baluchistan Survey Party.He was granted leave to proceed to Mussooree, where he died on 13thAugust. Mr. McNair joined the department on the 1st September, 1867,and was posted to the Rajputana Topographical Party. The first twelveyears of his service were passed on topographical duty with this partyunder Major G. Strahan, R.E.,and in the Mysore Party under Majors G.Strahan andH.
R. Thuillier, R.E. From the very first he showed specialaptitude as a plane tabler, and was soon recognised in the departmentas an accomplished surveyor. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected toaccompany the Khyber Column of the Afghan Field Force, and was presentwith that force during the severe fighting that occurred before Kabulin the winter of 1879 80, and the subsequent defence of Sharpur.Whilst in Afghanistan he mapped a very large portion of hithertounknown country, including the Lughman Valley and approaches toKafiristan, and the Logar and Wardak Valleys to the south of Kabul. Heexplored the Adrak Badrak Pass with a native escort, and made himselfacquainted with the route from Kabul to Jalalabad, _via_ Lughman,which was explored by no other European officer. At the close of thewar he was attached to the Kohat Survey, under Major Holdich, R.
E.,and was specially employed in the risky work of mapping the frontierline from Kohat to Bannu, including a wide strip of trans frontiercountry, and much of the hitherto unmapped Tochi Valley. On thebreak up of the Kohat Survey he was temporarily employed on geodeticwork in one of the Astronomical parties, but was re transferred to thefrontier when the Baluchistan parties were formed. His chief work inconnection with Baluchistan has been carrying a first class series oftriangles from the Indus, at Dehra Grhazi Khan to Quetta, whichoccupied him to the close of his career. His ability as an observer,his readiness of resource under unusual difficulties, and his power ofattaching the frontier people to him personally, have been just asconspicuous throughout this duty as were his energy and success as ageographical topographer. Apart from his departmental career, he haswon a lasting name as an explorer by his adventurous journey toKafiristan in 1883, when on leave.
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