LAHORE – Retired Major Geoffrey Douglas Langlands, a senior teacher at Atchison College, was laid to rest in Lahore on Monday.
Langlands breathed his last after a brief illness at a local hospital in Lahore on January 2 at the age of 101.
His funeral cortège passed through the historic grounds of Aitchison College with thousands present to pay their final respects to ‘The Major’, who lived the life of a soldier, teacher, gentleman, story-teller, mountaineer and humanitarian.
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Langlands devoted his life in service to others and especially his adopted country Pakistan.
Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Punjab Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Corps commander Lahore and other political personalities attended his last ceremonies.
Langlands, who has been awarded a Sitara-e-Imtiaz, Hilal-e-Imtiaz and other titles such as order of British Empire, taught important political personalities including Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Born on October 21, 1917, in Yorkshire, England, Langlands joined the British army in 1939 and later offered to volunteer in the Indian army in 1944.
After partition, he was offered service in the Pakistan Army which he accepted. He was a major when he retired from the army. At that time, he was granted permission to stay permanently in Pakistan by President Ayub Khan.
He was employed by Atchison College in 1954. Langlands taught English and mathematics for more than six decades in Pakistan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had been a student of Mr Lanlands, credits his teacher’s influence with instilling “the love for trekking and our northern areas in me”, describing the former teacher as “firm yet compassionate”.
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In the late 1970s, Major Langlands took up the head teacher’s job at the Razmak Cadet College in Waziristan, located near the Afghan border.
Langlands thereafter took over the role of head teacher at the Sayurj Public School in the city of Chitral in northwestern Pakistan. He raised funds to buy land for the school and expand it.
The institution was renamed after him as the Langlands School and College. He served there until the age of 95.
