he was appointed a member of the Persian Boundary Commission along with O. B. St. John. After a voyage to Basra he started back from Gwadar, 200 miles west of Karachi. He marched to Shiraz with St. John's party and then travelled alone through Ispahan to Teheran to join Sir Richard Pollock. He visited the Elbruz Mountains and returned to England from the Caspian via Astrakhan, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Berlin to reach home in September 1872. The best use was made of the exceptional opportunities of studying the natural history of those countries. He subsequently spent time to produce the report on Zoology. He represented the Indian Government at the meeting of the Geological Congress in Bologna. His attention was given not only to geology but to zoology, and especially to the land gastropods and to the vertebrates. He joined H J Elwes on a journey to Sikkim in 1870 during which several new bird species were described. Between 1870 and 1881 Blanford described 36 new species of reptiles and three new species of amphibians. In 1883 he married Ida Gertrude Bellhouse, and settled at Bedford Gardens, Campden Hill. For his many contributions to geological science, Blanford was in 1883 awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. For his labours on the zoology and geology of British India he received in 1901 a royal medal from the Royal Society. He had been elected F.R.S. in 1874, and was chosen president of the Geological Society in 1888. He was created Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1904. He died at his home at the age of 72 in Bedford Gardens, Campden Hill, in London on 23 June 1905 and is buried in a family vault at Highgate Cemetery. His principal publications were: Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia (1870), Manual of the Geology of India, with H. B. Medlicott (1879) and the third volume in Birds following the work of E. W. Oates in The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma series. Bibliography 1876: Eastern Persia: An Account of the Journeys of the Persian Boundary Commission 1870-71-72, the Zoology and Geology – volume 2 1879: A manual of the geology of India – volume 2 – with Henry Benedict Medlicott, Valentine Ball, Frederick Richard Mallet 1888: Mammalia 1889: Birds – volume 1 – with Eugene William Oates 1889: Birds –