Younghusband received a telegram from Simla, to attend the Intelligence Department (ID) to be interviewed by Foreign Secretary
Sir Mortimer Durand, transferred to the
Indian Political Service. He served as a political officer on secondment from the British Army. He refused a request to visit Lhasa as an interpreter, disguised as a Yarkandi trader, a cover not guaranteed to fool the Russians, after
Andrew Dalgleish, a Scots merchant, had been hacked to death. Younghusband was accompanied by a Gurkha escort, celebrated for their ferocity in combat. The Forward policy was circumscribed by a legal offer to all travellers of peaceable security crossing borders. Departure from
Leh on 8 August 1889 on the caravan route took them up the mountain pass of
Shimshal towards Hunza, his aim being to restore the tea trade to
Xinjiang and prevent any further raids into
Kashmir. Colonel Durand from
Gilgit joined him. Younghusband probed the villages to gauge the reception: calculating it was a den of thieves, they ascended the steep ravine. The Hunza was barred to them, a trap was sprung; the parley terms took him inside to negotiate. The nervous reception over, they were all relieved to find safety; Younghusband wanted to know who was waylaying innocent civilian traders, and why. The ruler,
Safdar Ali extended a letter of welcome to his Kashmiri kingdom; the British investigated whence came the Russian infiltrators under Agent Gromchevsky. Further south at
Ladakh, he kept a close watch on their movements. Reluctantly, Younghusband dined with the Cossack leaders, who divulged the secrets of their common rivalry. Gromchevsky explained that the Raj had invited enmity for meddling in the Black Sea ports. The Russian displayed little grasp of strategy, but basic raw courage; he betrayed the confidence of
Abdul Rahman as no friend to the British. Younghusband tentatively concluded that their possessions at
Bokhara and
Samarkand were vulnerable. Having drunk large quantities of vodka and brandy, the Cossacks presented arms in cordial salute and they parted in peace. Woefully unprepared for winter, the British garrison at Ladakh refused them entry. Younghusband finally arrived at
Gulmit to a 13-gun salute. In khaki, the envoy greeted Safdar Ali at the marquee on the Karakoram Highway, the men of Hunza kneeling at their ruler's feet. This was colonial diplomacy, based on protocol and etiquette, but Younghusband had not come for merely trivial discussions. Reinforced by Durand's troops, Younghusband's arguments were to prevent criminal looting, murder, and highway robbery. Impervious to reason though Safdar Ali was, Younghusband was not prepared to allow him to laugh at the Raj. A demonstration of firepower "caused quite a sensation", he wrote in his diaries. The British major was disdainful, but content when he left on 23 November to return to India, which he reached by Christmas. In 1890, Younghusband was sent on a mission to
Chinese Turkestan, accompanied by
George Macartney as interpreter. He spent the winter in
Kashgar, where he left Macartney as British consul. Younghusband sought to investigate the Pamir Gap, a possible Russian entry route to India, but first needed to address issues with the Chinese authorities in Kashgar. It was for this reason he recruited a Mandarin interpreter, junior officer George Macartney, to accompany his missions into the frozen mountains. They wintered in Kashgar as a listening post, meeting in conference with the Russian
Nikolai Petrovsky, who had always resisted trade with Xinjiang (
Sinkiang). The Russian agent was well-informed about British India, but proved unscrupulous. Believing he had succeeded, Younghusband did not reckon on Petrovsky's deal with the
Taotai of Xinjiang. In July 1891, they were still in the Pamirs when news reached them that the Russians intended to send troops "to note and report with the Chinese and Afghans". At
Bozai Gumbaz in the
Little Pamir on 12 August he encountered Cossack soldiers, who forced him to leave the area. This was one of the incidents which provoked the
Hunza-Nagar Campaign. The troop of 20 or so soldiers planted a flag on what they anticipated was unclaimed territory, 150 miles south of the Russian border. However, the British considered the area to be Afghan territory. Colonel
Yonov, decorated with the
Order of St George, approached his camp to announce that the area now belonged to the Tsar. Younghusband learnt that they had raided the
Chitral territory; furthermore, they had penetrated the
Darkot Pass into the
Yasin Valley. They were joined by eager intelligence officer Lieutenant Davison, but the British were disabused by Ivanov of British sovereignty: Younghusband remained polite, maintained protocol but hospitable to the big Russian bear hug. During his service in Kashmir, he wrote a book called
Kashmir at the request of
Edward M. J. Molyneux. Younghusband's descriptions went hand in glove with Molyneux's paintings of the valley. In the book, Younghusband declared his immense admiration of the natural beauty of Kashmir and its history. Younghusband participated in the geopolitical rivalry between Britain and Russia, known as 'The Great Game,' which persisted into the 20th century before being formally concluded by the 1907 Anglo-Russian Treaty. Younghusband, among other explorers such as
Sven Hedin,
Nikolay Przhevalsky,
Shoqan Walikhanov and
Sir Marc Aurel Stein, had participated in earnest. Rumours of Russian expansion into the
Hindu Kush with a Russian presence in Tibet prompted the new
Viceroy of India Lord Curzon to appoint Younghusband, by then a major, British commissioner to Tibet from 1902 to 1904.
Expedition to Tibet coat and helmet. From Tibet, in modern-day China. 14th–17th century CE. Iron, leather, and textile. Presented by Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Younghusband. Discoveries Gallery, National Museum of Scotland In 1903, Curzon appointed Younghusband as the head of the
Tibet Frontier Commission;
John Claude White, the political officer of
Sikkim, and E. C. Wilton, served as his deputy commissioners in the commission. Younghusband subsequently led the
British expedition to Tibet, which had the putative aim of settling disputes over the
Sikkim–Tibet border, but eventually exceeded instructions from Younghusband's superiors and became a
de facto invasion. Roughly inside Tibet, on the way to
Gyantse, thence to the capital of
Lhasa, Younghusband's troops defeated 600–700 Tibetan troops near the hamlet of Guru. The expedition's troops, equipped with rifles and machine guns, easily routed the poorly-equipped Tibetan forces, who were armed with hoes, swords, and flintlocks. Ultimately, 202 men of Younghusband's expedition were killed in action while 411 died of non-combat causes. and then he was awarded the honour of Knight Commander of the
Order of the Star of India in December 1904. He was also awarded the
Kaisar-I-Hind Medal (gold) in 1901, In 1906, Younghusband settled in
Kashmir as the British Resident representative before returning to
Britain in 1909, where he was an active member of many clubs and societies. In 1908, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. During the
First World War, his patriotic
Fight for Right campaign commissioned the song "
Jerusalem". == Himalaya and mountaineering ==