Charles Kemp Dove – Surveyor

Charles Kemp Dove, a great-great-great-great-great-grand uncle of Krysta and Teresa appears to have started out life as a Surveyor .

In 1833, Charles Kemp Dove worked as a Surveyor on the Great Trigonometric Survey of India. His boss was one Sir George Everest. Nearly 25 years later an extremely tall mountain would be named after the retired Everest. This made Everest very angry. Everest quite rightly thought that they should use the local names.

The Great Arc parties at Dehra Dūn  in 1834 included  J. Oliver Esq., and family, Mr. H. Keelan, Mr. W. Martin, Mr. W. Rossenrode, Mr. R. Clarkson, Mr. C. K. Dove, Mr. C. Murphy and family, Mr. G. Terry Bamboo Radanath, Mr. A. Kallonas.

These had all been through the very strenuous months from November 1833 when Everest had forced his triangles across the difficult JumnaGanges plain. He spared none of them. And it speaks highly for his leadership and personal magnetism that they all worked their very best in spite of a continual storm of heated letters, occasionally appreciative, but often ferociously angry.

To Dove: 11th March;

I thank you for your punctuality and attention to my orders. All your blue lights were seen and could not have been better managed.

The blue lights were lamps that Sir George Everest invented to allow trigonometric measurements at night when the air was calmer.

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