Alexander Gerard (17 February 1792 – 15 December 1839) was a Scottish army officer in India, and an early surveyor and explorer of the Himalayas.
[1][4] During the surveys in the Himalayas he ascended heights previously believed to be inaccessible, and penetrated into Tibet as far as the frontier pickets of Chinese would allow.
Leaving Sabathu, he ascended the Himalayan upper ranges, carefully noting the places inhabited by the way, establishing height above sea level with a barometer, checked by trigonometrical measurements wherever practicable, and noting temperatures, natural productions, and character of the people in places previously supposed to be uninhabited and uninhabitable.
[1] The company ascended the Keobarang pass, altitude 18,312 feet; also Mount Tahigung, where part of the ascent was at an angle of forty-two degrees.
[1] Broken health, the result of hardships endured in the course of his survey duties and travels, led to his retirement from the service on 22 February 1836, and brought him to a premature grave.
[1] A narrative of Gerard's Journey from Subathoo to Shipké in Chinese Tartary appeared posthumously in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1842), xi.
Afterwards, Alexander Gerard's papers, or some of them, appear to have been entrusted to George Lloyd, who published from them An Account of Koonawar in the Himalayas, (London, 1841).