Frederick Marshman Bailey Lt . Colonel Frederick Marshman Bailey ( 3 February 1882 , Lahore , India – 17 April 1967 , Stiffkey , Norfolk ) CIE was a British intelligence officer and one of the last protagonists of " The Great Game " - the fight for supremacy between the Russians and the British Empire along the Himalayas . His clandestine work gave him many opportunities to pursue his hobbies of photography , butterfly collecting and trophy hunting in the high Tibetan region . Over 2000 of his bird specimens were presented to The Natural History Museum , although his personal collection is now held in the American Museum of Natural History , New York . His papers and extensive photograph collections are held in the British Library , London . Early life . Born in Lahore on 3 February 1882 , F . H . M . Bailey , was the son of an officer in the Royal Engineers British Army ( who was also named Frederick , resulting in the younger Bailey usually being called just Eric ) . He studied at Edinburgh Academy , Wellington 1895 - 1899 and at Sandhurst from where he was commissioned onto the Unattached List , Indian Army on the 28th July 1900 . He was admitted to the Indian Army 26 October 1901 and appointed to the 17th Bengal Lancers . He was promoted to Lieutanant 28 October 1902 and transferred to the 32nd Sikh Pioneers on the 1st March 1903 . He obtained a transfer to the Foreign & Political Department 24 January 1906 . During a mission in Sikhim he began to study Tibetan , and became so proficient that he accompanied Francis Younghusband in his 1904 invasion of Tibet . He later travelled in unknown parts of China and Tibet , elected a Fellow of the Geographic Society in October 1906 ( seconded by his father Colonel F Bailey who had joined the society in 1880 ) eventually earning the Gold Explorer ' s Meda l from the Royal Geographical Society for his discoveries . He also contributed notes on big - game to the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society . He was promoted Captain 28 July 1908 and served during the operations in the Abor country 1911 - 12 . Having heard about rumours of a large waterfall , Bailey transferred himself from the Indian Army to the Political Department to get appointments on the Tibetan frontier . In 1911 - 12 he made an unauthorized exploration to the Tsangpo Gorges with Captain Henry Morshead of the Survey of India . Morshead was later a surveyor for the initial to Mount Everest , along with George Mallory . Their adventures led them to the Rong Chu valley a gorge on the upper Tsangpo . It was in this valley that Bailey spotted a tall blue poppy at the margin of the forest and pressed it in his notebook - now called " Meconopsis baileyi " . They reached Kintup ' s falls at the monastery of Pemakochung and were greatly disappointed to find the falls to be about thirty feet . First World War . On the 4th September 1914 he was appointed as a Captain with the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry at Dublin . Bailey served on the western front during March to April 1915 with the 34th Sikh Pioneers , where he was shot in the arm . At the time he was serving in the Indian Expeditionary Forces as one of the few Urdu - speaking officers on the front . When his wound continued to worsen , he returned to England , but later joined the fight again at Gallipoli in September 1915 serving with the 5th Gurkhas , where he was wounded twice more . He was appointed Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire , 1 January 1915 ( London Gazette 1 January 1915 ) . Transferred to the Supernumary List 24 December 1915 . He was sent back to India , where he served as Political Officer on the North West Frontier during the Mohmand Operations January 1916 to March 1917 . In December 1917 he was sent to South Persia where he served until February 1918 as a Political officer , then Chinese & Russian Turkistan 1918 - 1920 He was appointed a temporary Lieutenant - Colonel , 1 April 1918 until 30 May 1920 . Mission to Tashkent . One of Bailey ' s more well - known adventures occurred in 1918 , when he traveled to Tashkent in Central Asia on a mission to discover the intentions of the new Bolshevik government , specifically in relation to India . During this mission he also shadowed Raja Mahendra Pratap , an Indian nationalist who had established the Provisional Government of India in Kabul in 1915 . Pratap was at the time liaising with Germany and Bolshevik authorities for a joint Soviet - German assault into India through Afghanistan . It was at this time that the first plans for the Soviet " Kalmyk Project " was first considered . Bailey eventually had to flee for his life from the city , and only escaped after taking on the guise of an Austrian POW and joining the Cheka , with an assignment to find a rogue British agent - that is , himself . Upon his return to England , he was a national hero . Bailey later recorded his exploits in his book " Mission to Tashkent " . He was also instrumental in organising support for the Basmachi Revolt . Later life . In 1921 he married Hon . Irma , daughter of Baron Cozens - Hardy . He was the Political Officer for Sikkim and Tibet 1921 - 28 . He helped Frank Kingdon - Ward and Lord Cawdor in 1924 when he was a Political Officer in Gangtok , Sikkim . Bailey arranged passports and encouraged them to search the fifty - mile unexplored gap of the river to solve the " riddles of the Tsangpo Gorges " . Kingdon - Ward wrote a book by the same name documenting that expedition . He was among the earliest to import the Lhasa Apso breed of dog into Britain . He was in contact with others interested in Central Asia including Richard Meinertzhagen . He was promoted Lieutenat - Colonel 28 July 1926 . He was the Resident at Baroda , Central India from 1930 – 32 , and was appointed the Resident in Kashmir later in 1932 until 1933 . In February 1935 he was appointed His Majesty ' s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Katmandu . He held this appointment until retiring in 1938 . He retired from the Indian Army 3 February 1937 . Served as a King ' s Messenger to Central and South America 1942 - 43 .