Wanted: new headmaster for a school of hard knocks

After living and working in some of Pakistan's most dangerous corners for almost 70 years, Major Geoffrey Langlands, who turns 93 today, is looking for a successor to continue his work in a remote, mountain school that he transformed into one of the country's finest.

His career - during which he has educated world-class cricketers, taken tea with military dictators and been kidnapped by armed tribesmen - is due to be celebrated tonightwith a reception at the British High Commission in Islamabad, with a presentation to mark his elevation to Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in the overseas honours list this year.

However, his retirement plans have been put on hold after two candidates to take over The Langlands School and College, in Chitral, withdrew their applications, citing heightened security concerns in a region surrounded by Taleban havens and close to the border with Afghanistan.

"That seems to me more of a reason for staying," he chuckled over a cup of tea after flying in to Islamabad this week. "There's even more of a job to do."

Major Langlands arrived in South Asia in 1944. After seeing action with 4 Commando in France, he volunteered to join the British Indian army and stayed on as India and Pakistan endured the bloody upheaval of partition in 1947. He spent six years as an adviser to the new Pakistan Army before taking a job at Lahore's prestigious Aitchison college, where he resumed his war-interrupted civilian career of maths teacher.

He stayed there for 25 years, teaching the sons of the country's elite. Among them was a 13-year-old boy with a gift for cricket called Imran Khan, whom he encouraged to work harder in order to develop his leadership skills. "I did a lot for him. Nothing for his cricket," he said, "but I was his classmaster and I used to be on to him."

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 Taleban fighters and al-Qaeda terrorists.

Even then it had its dangers. Major Langlands was kidnapped by tribesmen trying to overturn a local election result.

The ordeal ended after six days when tribal leaders negotiated Major Langlands release, an episode he now says was educational rather than traumatic as the gunmen treated him with the respect reserved for elders.

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 it is in safe hands before he leaves for good.That means finding the right applicant and grooming them for the unique challenges of Pakistan's frontier land.