Lt. Colonel Frederick Marshman Bailey (February 3, 1882 - April 17, 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 hobby of butterfly collecting and trophy hunting in the high Tibetan region. Over 2000 of his bird specimens were presented to The Natural History Museum,[1] although his personal collection is now held in the American Museum of Natural History, New York.[2]

Born in Lahore on February 3, 1882, F.H.M. Bailey, was the son of an officer in the British Army (who was also named Frederick, resulting in the younger Bailey usually being called just Eric). He studied at Edinburgh Academy, Wellington and at Sandhurst before returning to India as a member of the 17th Bengal Lancers and from 1903 to 1905 with the 32nd Sikh Pioneers.[2] 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[3] 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[4] 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.

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.[5] He was in contact with others interested in Central Asia including Richard Meinertzhagen.