TANNER, Henry Charles Baskerville. Stroud, Gloucestershire 30.6.1835 (or Tasmania 1835?) —Avon, Somerset 16.3.1898 or Bath ?.3.1898. British Colonial Officer in India. Grew up in Western Australia, where his parents, William Tanner (1801–1845) and Hester Viveash (1804–1846), had emigrated in the 1820s, but in 1844 the family returned to England (Wiltshire). After Addiscombe joined Indian army and left for India in 1854. Joined Bombay Staff Corps, 1862 transferred to Survey Department. Major, 1884 Colonel. During 1878 Afghan war explored Chugani and Kunar valleys. In the 1880s surveyed Gilgit. After a home leave sent to Darjeeling, surveyed Sikkim and Nepal borders, from 1885 Central Himalaya from Simla. Retired in 1890 and settled in Bath. Married 1859 Mary Anne Vane Ealey (née Hogg), four daughters and one son.
Tanner was a keen photographer, whose numerous Himalayan pictures are held by Royal Geographical Society.Also botanical collector and watercolorist.
Publications: “Notes on the Chugáni and neighbouring Tribes of Kafiristan”, Proc. of the Royal Geogr. Soc. 3, 1881, 278-301.
– With others: Reports of trans-Himalayan explorations in Badakhshán and beyond the frontier of Sikkim: prepared for publication with the Annual report for 1881-82 of the Survey of India. 23+83+8 p. (Calcutta) 1883.
Sources: H. Carr, “A Victorian Surveyor-artist in the Himalaya and Karakoram”, Alpine Journal 1978, 12-16 (in www.alpinejournal.org). The first dates and places of birth and death in ancestry.com, the second in wikitree.com.
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