Geoffrey Langlands

In July 1935, Langlands completed his A Level education and began his teaching career in London, the following year at age 18. In September 1936, he was a mathematics and science teacher to second grade students in a school in Croydon.[14] When World War II began in 1939, Langlands joined the British Army as an enlisted soldier. In 1942, Langlands became a commando and took part in the Dieppe Raid.[12]

In January 1944, Langlands arrived in British India as an army volunteer on a troop carrier and worked three years as part of the selection board for officers training in Bangalore. Rising to the acting rank of troop sergeant major, he received an emergency commission in the British Indian Army as a second lieutenant in the Garhwal Rifles on 3 September 1944.[15][16] After Bangalore, Langlands was stationed in Dehradun.[17] He was promoted to temporary captain on 28 July 1945, subsequently transferring to the 14th Punjab Regiment.[15] During the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 when India and Pakistan became independent nations, Langlands decided to move to Pakistan and was transferred to Rawalpindi where he joined the Pakistan Army.[18][19]

Aitchison College

Chitral in summer

Langlands began his career in Pakistan by working as an instructor for the country's newly created army. He selected and trained officers for approximately six years. Upon the completion of the contract with Pakistan Army, British Army troops began to leave the country, and Langlands had to decide what to do next. Ayub Khan, then President of Pakistan, asked him to stay and teach, which he immediately agreed to do.[20]

He devoted the next 25 years to the so-called "Eton of Pakistan", Aitchison College in Lahore,[20] teaching mathematics to "upper-crust young Pakistanis destined to lead in business, politics and the army"[21] and rising to be the college's dean[22] and headmaster of its prep school.[3]

In 1979, the Chief Minister of the Northwest Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) offered Langlands the post of principal at Cadet College Razmak in North Waziristan.[3] IN April Langlands joined the Cadet College, which had been created only the year before,[23] and served until September 1989.[24]

In late 1989, Langlands took charge of the first private school in Chitral, which was later renamed Langlands School and College in his honour.[20] The school, founded in September 1988 by local Deputy Commissioner Javed Majeed,[25] grew steadily under his leadership. From 80 pupils it grew to 800, about a third girls, and many won scholarships to universities.[20]

Langlands served the school for the rest of his life. He suffered a stroke in 2008, which hastened the search for a replacement. By the time Declan Walsh reported on the man and the school in 2009, it was clear that standards had slipped, and the financial situation was parlous; the district's top official said Langlands was ""A brilliant teacher but not a good manager."[21] Eventually another principal was found, and Langlands reluctantly agreed to move to grace and favour accommodation on the grounds of Aitchison College, as it was thought that he could do more good for the Chitral school by fundraising in the capital.[10] At the age of 94 in September 2012, he moved back to Lahore.[26]

Langlands disagreed with some of the changes his successor - also a British citizen - began to put in place.[27] He attempted to prevent Carey Schofield from doing her work by asking a former pupil, Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, the Interior Minister, to deny her a work visa.[28] Eventually scores of the college staff boarded a school bus for the 1000 km drive to Lahore, where they met with Langlands and persuaded him to allow Schofield to continue her work.[28]

He turned 100 in October 2017, which was celebrated with a party which many luminaries attended, as reported in Dawn.[29][30]