Major Geoffrey Langlands, a former British officer who stayed on in Pakistan after the end of the colonial rule and became one of the country’s most famous educators, with students including Prime Minister Imran Khan, died in Lahore on Wednesday. He was 101.

Langlands has been honoured with Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Hilal-i-Imtiaz, Order of St. Michael and St. George, and Order of British Empire by the Queen of England for his contribution to humanity and education. Among Langlands’ students were Prime Minister Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The kindness of a family friend allowed him to be put through public school at King’s College Taunton. With no money, university was out of the question and teaching followed.

After partition, he was transferred to the Pakistan Army, which he willingly accepted. He was holding the rank of a major when he retired.

On the request of the then Pakistan President Ayub Khan, Langlands stayed on in Pakistan and was given a job at Aitchison College in 1954. In 1974, he was made the head master of Prep School.

“Saddened to learn of the passing of my teacher. Apart from being our teacher, he instilled the love for trekking and our northern areas in me – before the KKH was built,” Khan tweeted along with pictures of him with Langlands.

Born in 1917 in Yorkshire, England, with a twin brother, Langlands lost his father to flu pandemic of the following year. His mother succumbed to cancer when he was 10 and he and his brother and younger sister were left in the care of grandparents.

In 1979, Langlands was asked to give up his comfortable job at Aitchison to take up a difficult but rewarding job in North Waziristan, a challenge he could not refuse. He was appointed as principal to Razmak Cadet College. He served there until 1989.

“More than 300 students from Razmak Cadet College made into the Army as commissioned officers 17 made lieutenant colonels. They are some of the finest men today,” Langlands had said proudly back in 2010 in an interview. He remained principal of this school for ten years.