Andrews Arthur Westlake
(Bearbeiten)
Biografie:
geboren in Hastings (Großbritannien)
gestorben in Zennor (Großbritannien)
ARTHUR WESTLAKE ANDREWS
1868-1959
The death of A. W. Andrews at Zennor on November 22 last removed a very notable figure in British climbing. He belonged to those active days in the 1890's and early twentieth century, when so much was being done in the Lakes and North Wales by Glynne Jones and J. M. Archer Thomson, and among them Andrews held a high place. He was elected a member of the Alpine Club in February 1899, and joined the Climbers' Club in 1901., serving the latter as Editor, Vice-President, President, Hut Custodian and Guide-book writer.
Andrews was born at Hastings on December 12, 1868, and his childhood was spent at Teffont Evias in Wiltshire, where his father was rector.. He was educated at Charterhouse (Junior Scholar, 1882, Senior Scholar, 1884) and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was an Exhibitioner (2nd Class Classical Mods., 1889; 2nd Class Lit. Hum. 1891). He was a notable all-round athlete, representing Oxford in cross-country running in 1889 and in the high jump, 1890, where he was second, reaching 5 ft. 8 in. In 1893 he won a Continental Championship at Berlin for the one mile. Tennis was one of the great interests of his life; between 1887 and 1914 he frequently played at Wimbledon, in 1900 reaching the semifinals of the Men's Singles. After 1923 he represented Cornwall on several occasions, in later years
figuring prominently in veterans tournaments at Eastbourne and at St. Ives. He was said to play with a very large racket like a fishing net. At Oxford he made his first contacts with mountaineering, having rooms below those, of W. A. B. .Coolidge, with whom he became on friendly terms. A man of independent means, he first thought of taking up Law, but eventually decided upon Geography, becoming an Extension lecturer both in Oxford and London. In 1897 he read a paper to the R.G.S. (G.J., ix, 427) on " The Teaching of Geography in relation
to History"; the views he expressed were new in those days and his paper was reckoned to be of very real importance. His first visit to the Alps was in 1890, when he climbed with Alexander Burgener (1) and the following year he visited Norway, making, inter alia, the first ascent of Middle Riingstind. In 1895 and 1896 he was again in the Alps, but with little to show. In 1898, however, he had a better season in the Zermatt, Arolla and Combin districts. In 1899 he visited the Horunger and in 1900 was in the Graians; in 1901 and 1902 he was in the Ortler group, working on the revision of Ball's Guide, and also visited the Bernina. In all these last five seasons O. K. Williamson was his companion, along with Jean Maitre and J. M. Lochmatter (except in Norway).(2) Others of his climbing companions in the Alps were J. B. Farmer (with whom he traversed the Meije in 1906) and J. C. Morland (3), but dates are somewhat uncertain and in any case they did not normally essay big climbs, but travelled guideless, mostly in the Valais and Graians.
Andrews' Alpine record looks small, but is incomplete. In England, however, he was an outstanding personality and his paper in the ALPINE JOURNAL (A.J. 24. 564) on Lliwedd did much to push Forward the claims of British hills to the attention of members of the A.C. Although he had already climbed in Cornwall and Skye, Andrews made his first visit to North Wales in 1890 (4) when there were still only a handful of climbs achieved on the local crags. After cycling up from Broadway in two days, he stayed with the Owens at Pen-y-Gwryd and
scrambled on Lliwedd, Tryfan and the Glyders. In 1892 he visited Skye. His next visit to Wales was not until 1901, where he found the exploration of the hills in full swing, and he soon fell in with J. M. A. Thomson, the leading climber there. Andrews came to know Lliwedd
particularly well, mostly by solitary wanderings up, down and across. In those days of heavily nailed boots he was one of the first to climb in plimsolls on mountain rocks - an important step forward in British climbing development for which he deserves full credit. His collaboration
with Thomson produced the first Welsh climbers guide-book, The Climbs on Lliwedd, published by the Climbers' Club in 1909.
In spite of his long association with climbing in North Wales and abroad, today Andrews is best remembered for his great contributions to climbing on the Cornish cliffs. His uncle, John Westlake, bought a house at Zennor in 1873 and the very young Andrews soon began to go
there for holidays, though he does not seem to have realised the climbing possibilities until 1902, when he began to record actual climbing routes at Bosigran, Wicca, etc.
He served in France in the first world war, returning in 1922 to live at Tregerthen, at Zennor, where so many climbers have since been made so wonderfully welcome. Andrews had described some of his climbs in Cornwall in the Climbers' Club Journal for 1905, and in 1934,
1937 and 1938 the same journal published further accounts of climbs, and also pictures, both on the north and south Cornish coasts. In 1938 he persuaded the Climbers' Club to form the Bosigran hut; climbers began to come in increasing numbers to visit the area and Andrews was always there to welcome them. For years he had made all the routes and almost until he was 80 years of age he was ready to go out with newcomers on climbs. In 1948 he collaborated with E. C.
Pyatt in producing the Climbers' Club Cornwall guide-book. During the second world war he served as a special constable and it was during this period that he began to write poetry, the first volume of his verse being published in 1957, and was very well received. He kept up a large correspondence with climbers and never seemed to forget anyone with his Christmas cards, whilst climbing parties in Cornwall came to regard a visit to Andrews as a regular item in the holiday programme, when he would welcome them with a cream tea and all the latest climbing news. He will be sorely missed.
E. C. PYATT.
T. S. BLAKENEY.
(1) Incorrectly, in A.J. 54. 35, he gives the year as 1889.
(2) A.J. 53. 262.
(3) He contributed the obituaries of Williamson, Farmer and Morland to the A.J.
(4) Andrews gives the date of this visit as 1889 both in C.C.J., Vol. X, p. 287, and in A.J. 24. 565. but as 1890 in A.J. 54. 3~.-EDITOR.
Quelle: Alpine Journal 1960, Vol. 65, Seite 133 f
Erste Ersteigung der Zufrittspitze vom Hohenfernerjoch mit O.K. Willmason und dem Bergführer Joseph Lochmatter und J. Maitre im Jahre 1902;
Quelle: Archiv Proksch (Österr. Alpenklub)
Geboren am:
12.12.1868
Gestorben am:
22.11.1959