Sir George Everest
(born July 4, 1790, Gwernvale, Brecknockshire, Wales?died Dec. 1, 1866,
London
, Eng.) was a
British
geodesist who completed the trigonometric survey of
India
, on which depended the accurate mapping of the
subcontinent
.
Everest distinguished himself during engineering training at military schools in
England
. He joined the
East India Company
in 1806 and served the next seven years in Bengal. During the British occupation of the
Dutch East Indies
, Everest worked on the survey of Java (1814?16), then returned to India. From 1818 to 1843, except for two leaves to recover his health, he worked on the survey of India, as superintendent from 1823 and as surveyor general from 1830. During his term as surveyor general, Everest introduced the most accurate
surveying
instruments of the day; in the course of the project, Everest and his
predecessors
measured the meridional arc of 11.5 degrees from the Himalayas to
Cape Comorin
, the southernmost point of the
Indian subcontinent
. Everest was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society
in 1827 and was knighted in 1861.
Mount Everest
, the world’s highest peak, which had been called Peak XV, was renamed in his honour in 1865.