(Via Telegraph UK) A former British Army officer, who has run an elite private school in one of Pakistan's most dangerous regions for more than 60 years, will today be honoured by the Queen for his work. Major Geoffrey Langlands, 93, arrived in South Asia during the Second World War and today is still running a remote school in a region bordered by Afghanistan and dotted with insurgent camps and a stranglehold of the Taliban.
During his career he has educated world class cricketers, including Imran Khan, taken tea with military dictators and been kidnapped by armed tribesmen for six days and now intends to retire.
However, he is struggling to find a replacement. Two candidates to take over The Langlands School and College, in Chitral, withdrew their applications, citing heightened security concerns in a region surrounded by Taliban havens.
"That seems to me more of a reason for staying," he said. "There's even more of a job to do."
His achievements will be celebrated with a reception at the British High Commission in Islamabad, including a presentation to mark his elevation to Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the overseas honours list this year.
Major Langlands stayed on in Pakistan after it won its independence in 1947. He helped train its new army before taking a job at Lahore's prestigious Aitchison College, as a maths teacher.
In the 1980s he took over Razmak Cadet College in North Waziristan – today a region off-limits to Westerners and known as a haven for Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda terrorists.
Even then it had its dangers. Major Langlands was kidnapped by tribesmen as part of a plot to overturn a local election result. The ordeal ended after six days when tribal elders negotiated Major Langlands' release, an episode he now says was rather educational.
The following year, in 1989, he moved to his present school in Chitral, where he pays himself the modest sum of £40 a week.
A retirement home is waiting at Aitchison College, but the mountain school of 900 pupils is losing money and Major Langlands wants to make sure he has found a successor before he leaves.
"I shall carry on as long as I am physically and mentally alert," he said.
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