Henry Godwin-Austen by Bob

Henry Godwin-Austen was born on July 6, 1834 in Tiegnmouth, England. Tiegnmouth is a small town on the southern most part of the main island (Columbia Encyclopedia). His father Robert Alfred Cloynes Godwin-Austen was a geographer who received the Wollaston medal in 1862 by the Geographical society of London, which was the highest award for geography at that time. Later in his life Henry went to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, England. As a result Henry entered the army in 1851. While in the army Godwin-Austen attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel serving for many years on the Trigonometrical Survey of India.
The Trigonometrical Survey of India was a project of the British to survey and measure the peaks of the mountains in the Himalayas while also assigning territories (The Great Arc). While serving in the Trigonometrical Survey of India he became one of the first men to survey the mountain that is now called Mt Godwin-Austen. Originally Mt Godwin-Austen was named as K2 because it was the second Peak that Godwin-Austen had surveyed. However, to this day many people still call the peak K2 rather than Mt Godwin Austen (The Unabridged Hutchinson Encyclopedia). The reason K is in the name for the peak K2 is because it is in the Karakorum mountain range which is between China, Pakistan, and India.

Citations:
Godwin-Austen,Henry."Columbia. 6th. 2001.
The Great Arc. Department of science and technology, survey of india. 21 Oct 2007 .
"Godwin Austen." The Unabridged Hutchinson Encyclopedia. 2004. Research Machines plc 21 Oct. 2007