| Code | PX28 |
| Dates | 1834-1923 |
| Person Name | Austen; Henry Haversham Godwin- (1834-1923); Explorer and Geologist |
| Surname | Austen |
| Forenames | Henry Haversham Godwin- |
| Epithet | Explorer and Geologist |
| Activity | In December 1851 he obtained his commission, and in 1852 served in the Second Anglo-Burmese War. It was in Burma that he first surveyed unknown ground by mapping the distributaries of the Irrawaddy delta.
In 1856 Godwin-Austen was attached to the great trigonometrical survey of India to help with the first survey of Kashmir. During 1858 and 1859 he surveyed the Marau-Warwan valley and northern Jammu. In 1860 he was appointed to a permanent post as topographical assistant in the trigonometrical survey and mapped the Shigar and lower Saltoro valleys of Baltistan. . The same year he crossed the Skoro La, beyond Skardu and Shigar, to discover and survey the Karakoram glaciers, the Baltoro (36 miles), the Punmah (28 miles), the Biafo (37 miles), and the Hispar (38 miles), which form one of the greatest glacier systems in the world, together with the mountains that enclose them. In 1862 he explored the upper Changchenmo and mapped the northern border of the Pangong district on the western edge of the Tibetan plateau, as well as the upper valleys of the Zaskar ranges, including the numerous glaciers of the Sutlej-Zaskar watershed. The following year he completed the survey of the Pangong Lake and district as far as the Rudok Tibetans permitted.
In 1863 Godwin-Austen was appointed to serve on the political mission of Ashley Eden to Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas. He next commanded the party engaged in the survey of the Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia hills, and of the Nowgong and Cachar districts of Assam. In 1873–4 he explored the Naga hills, previously unvisited by Europeans, and in 1875 he accompanied the first Dafla expedition, surveying 1700 square miles of previously unexplored country in the eastern Himalayas. In the intervals between this pioneering exploration Godwin-Austen undertook geological investigations of considerable importance, especially in the outer Himalayas.
He retired from the service with the rank of colonel in June 1877. He continued his study of natural science and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1880 for his contributions to geography and geology; he became president of section E (geography) of the British Association in 1883, and was president of the Malacological Society from 1897 to 1899 and of the Conchological Society in 1908–9; he received the founder's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1910. |
| Relationships | Eldest son of Robert Alfred Cloyne Godwin-Austen (1808-1884), geologist, of Shalford House, near Guildford, Surrey, and his wife, Maria Elizabeth (d. 1904), only daughter of Major-General Sir Henry Thomas Godwin.
5 April 1861 he married Pauline Georgiana (d. 1871), daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wellesley Chichele Plowden
1 June 1881 married Jessie (d. 1913), daughter of John Harding Robinson |
| RefNo | Title |
| DF/ZOO/200/67/57 | Godwin-Austen, Col. H H (Godalming) |
| DF/PAL/100/124/4 | Godwin-Austen Collection |
| DF/ZOO/200/20/161-162 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/ZOO/200/55/42 | Godwin-Austen, H H (Godalming) |
| DF/PAL/100/17/149 | Godwin-Austen, [Henry Haversham] |
| DF/ZOO/200/71/76 | Godwin-Austen, H H (Godalming) |
| DF/ZOO/219/61 | List of genera in the drawers in the Shell Gallery from the collections of WT and HF Blandford and HH Godwin Austen |
| DF/ZOO/200/15/17 | [Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham] |
| DF/ZOO/200/22/6-7 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/ZOO/200/23/7-8 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/ZOO/200/37/9 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/ZOO/200/34/7a | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/ZOO/200/48/39 | Godwin-Austen, [Henry Haversham] |
| DF/ZOO/235/1/1/8/10 | Austen, Henry. Haversham. Godwin |
| DF/ZOO/200/63/49 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham (Godalming) |
| DF/ZOO/252/1/14/42 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/PAL/100/61/184 | Godwin-Austen, H H |
| DF/PAL/100/61/183 | Godwin-Austen, H H |
| DF/PAL/100/61/185 | Godwin-Austen, H H |
| DF/DIR/932/1/123 | Austin, Henry Haversham Godwin; Cunningham, D J (Dulbin) |
| DF/DIR/932/1/122 | Austin, Henry Haversham Godwin; Bolton, Gambier |
| DF/ADM/1004/75 | Bequests: H H Godwin-Austen's land and freshwater Mollusca from India |
| DF/PAL/100/41/17 | Godwin-Austen, H. |
| DF/PAL/100/17/332 | Austen, H[enry] H[aversham] Godwin- |
| DF/ZOO/200/61/70 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham (Godalming) |
| DF/PAL/105/1/2 | Shells from Kashmir. Mr H H Godwin - Austen |
| DF/PAL/122/1/7 | Newton, Richard Bullen: correspondence |
| DF/PAL/122/1/1 | Newton, Richard Bullen: correspondence |
| DF/PAL/122/1/5 | Newton, Richard Bullen: correspondence |
| DF/PAL/100/41/18 | Godwin-Austen, H. |
| DF/ZOO/200/46/170-171 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham |
| DF/ZOO/200/47/148-154 | Godwin-Austen, [Henry Haversham] |
| DF/PAL/122/1/4 | Newton, Richard Bullen: correspondence |
| DF/PAL/122/1/2 | Newton, Richard Bullen: correspondence |
| DF/PAL/122/1/3 | Newton, Richard Bullen: correspondence |
| DF/ZOO/200/65/55 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham (Godalming) |
| DF/ZOO/200/69/75 | Godwin-Austen, Henry Haversham (Godalming) |
| DF/ADM/1001/42 | Outgoing Letterbook |