learned to pilot an aircraft and conducted an aerial survey of the Bijaigarh shales. In 1945–51, he was engaged in investigating all the major dam sites, hydro electric projects, irrigation works and water supply schemes of India. He became an acclaimed expert on groundwater in the Kutch and Rajasthan region. The Geological Survey of India offered the position of a director to Auden in 1953 but he declined it on the grounds of health and also pointed out that it would be only right for an Indian to lead (who would be M.S. Krishnan) it. After retiring from the Geological Survey of India (he was the last European to be recruited into it and the last European to leave the organization) he joined the Sudan geological survey from 1953 for two years and for four years with the Burmah Oil Company.In 1960 he joined the Food and Agriculture Organization, where he worked until 1970. After retiring he lived in London, at Thurloe Square close to the Victoria and Albert Museum and served for two years as vice-president of the Geological Society of London. He was awarded the gold medal of the Asiatic Society in 1953 and the Darashaw Nosherwanji Wadia medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 1980. Personal life The milieu of Auden and his generation of explorers forms the central narrative of The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire, a historical book by Deborah Baker. Auden married twice, first to Margaret Marshall who was interested in psychology and initially a counsellor for Auden. She suggested that his depression would improve if he did not return to India. After the death of Margaret's husband, Douglas Marshall, she married John in 1930 and went to India. John found Margaret domineering, unfaithful and a spendthrift and they separated in January 1932, divorcing in October 1933. He married Sheila Bonnerjee, a granddaughter of a founding president of the Indian National Congress Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, in 1940 and they had two daughters. The family lived in London and Calcutta where he resigned from the Saturday and Tollygunge clubs as his wife would not be admitted. He converted from Anglican to Roman Catholicism in 1951. He died at London on 21 January. According to his requests, he was cremated and a Mass was held on the 29th at Westminster Cathedral. Further to his request, his ashes were immersed in the