Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine
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ROWING CREWS
Shrewsbury 1st VIII - 1919
W F Smith, bow
2 E C Garton
3 T F Bingham
4 A C Irvine
5 W B Fletcher
6 G S Nason
7 W F Godden
M H Ellis, stroke
W O S Scott, cox
Shrewsbury 1st VIII - 1920
D C Bennett, bow
2 E C Garton
3 S F L Dahne
4 J E Pedder
5 T F Bingham
6 A C Irvine
7 W F Godden
W F Smith, stroke
I Robertson, cox
Shrewsbury 1st VIII - 1921
I R Bruce, bow
2 J N Rofe
3 T R A Bevan
4 J E Pedder
5 E R J Walmsley
6 A R Armitage
7 A C Irvine
W F Smith, stroke
I Robertson, cox
University Boat Race
LXXIV Saturday 1 April 1922, at 4.40pm
Oxford (Surrey)
P C Mallam, Qu. Bow 11.6
A C Irvine, Mert 12.8
S Earl, Magd. 12. 6 ½
J E Pedder, Worc 12.9
G O Nickalls, Magd 12.8
D T Raikes, Mert 13.6 ½
G Milling, Mert 11.10
A V Campbell, Ch.Ch. str 11.5 ½
W H Porritt, Magd. Cox 8.10
Average 12.4
Cambridge (Middlesex)
T D A Collet, Pem. Bow 12.3
A J Hodgkin, 1 Trin 12.6 ½
K N Craig, Pemb 12.8 ½
A D Pearson, 1 Trin 13.10 ½
H B Playford, Jesus 13.10 ½
B G Ivory, Pemb 13.8
Hon J W H Fremantle, 3 Trin 12.6 ½
P H G H-S Hartley, LMBC, str 11.6
L E Stephens, Trin H cox 9.4
Average 12.11
Cambridge won by 4 ½ lengths in 19 min. 27 sec
LXXV Saturday 24 March 1923, at 5.10pm
Oxford (Surrey)
P C Mallam, Qu. Bow 11.12
P R Wace, BNC 12.6 ½
A C Irvine, Mert. 12.10 ½
R K Kane, Ball. 13.9 ½
G J Mower-White, BNC 13.11 ½
J E Pedder, Worc 13.3 ½
G O Nickalls, Magd 12.12
W P Mellen, BNC. Str 10.12
G D Clapperton, Magd. Cox 7.11
Average 12.8 ½
Cambridge (Middlesex)
W F Smith, 1 Trin. Bow 11.7 ½
F W Law, LMBC. 12.12
K N Craig, Pemb. 13.0
S H Heap, Jesus 13.7 ½
B G Ivory, Pemb 13.10
T D A Collet, Pemb 12.7
R E Morrison, 3 Trin 12.1
T R B Sanders, 3 Trin str 11.12
R A L Balfour, 3 Trin cox 8.8
Average 12.8 7/8
Oxford won by ¾ length in 20 min. 54 sec
EVEREST TEAM MEMBERS
1921
Lt. Col. Charles K. Howard-Bury (Leader)
Harold Raeburn (Climbing Leader, but indisposed)
George H. Leigh Mallory (Acting Climbing Leader)
Guy H. Bullock
Dr. Alexander M. Kellas
Dr. A. M. Heron (Geological Survey of India)
Maj. Henry T. Morshead
Maj. Edward O. Wheeler (Survey of India)
Dr. Alexander F. R. Wollaston (Medical Officer/Naturalist)
Gyalzen Kazi
Chettan Wangdi (Interpreters)
1922
General Charles G. Bruce (Leader)
Lt. Col. Edward Lisle Strutt (Deputy Leader)
Capt. C. Geoffrey Bruce
Colin G. Crawford
C. John Morris (Transport Officers)
George Ingle Finch
Dr. Tom G. Longstaff (Medical Officer / Naturalist)
George H. Leigh Mallory
Maj. Henry T. Morshead
Maj. Edward F. Norton
Capt. John B. L. Noel (Photographer / Filmmaker)
Dr. T. Howard Somervell
Dr. Arthur W. Wakefield
Karma Paul (Interpreter)
Gyaljen (Gyalzen kazi) (Sirdar)
1924
General Charles G. Bruce (Leader, but indisposed)
Lt. Col. Edward F. Norton (Acting Leader, after Bruce taken ill)
George H. Leigh Mallory (Climbing Leader)
Bentley Beetham
Capt. C. Geoffrey Bruce
John de Vars Hazard
Maj. R.W.G. Hingston (Medical Officer)
Andrew C. ‘Sandy’ Irvine
Capt. John B. L. Noel (Photographer / Filmmaker)
Noel E. Odell
E. O. Shebbeare (Transport Officer)
Dr. T. Howard Somervell
Karma Paul (Interpreter)
Gyaljen (Gyalzen Kazi) (Sirdar)
A glorious, very remarkable, very disheartening end to a beautiful young man, who probably … Let’s leave him with the likelihood that he got there and did it. Leave him in peace.
Harry Abraham, 5 May 2001
Since the publication of the first edition of this book in November 2000 the feedback from all quarters has been as remarkable as it has been unexpected. It would seem that Sandy Irvine’s life touched more people than even I had anticipated. People wrote to me saying that memories, dormant for fifty or sixty years, had come flooding back. Some were reminded of specific events, such as the lantern slide lectures given by Noel Odell in the late 1920s, others had memories of various members of the Irvine family. Then there were people who had strong recollections of things pertaining directly to Sandy himself.
John Kemp, helping out at in the cellars of Hertfordshire County Library during the Second World War as a boy, told me of ‘packing what I remembered as junk into large wooden boxes brought down from London for safety from air raids. It belonged to the Alpine Club Library. I clearly remember an ice axe and have vague memories of notebooks, goggles and clothing. What ever it was it must have been of some value to store it. This incident remained hidden in my memory for over sixty years and reading your book revived the memory and the rather morbid feeling I had at the time.’ For a long while the ice axe was one of the only articles belonging to Sandy Irvine known to be in existence and I well remember seeing it for the first time. It was difficult to believe that I was holding something that had been found so high on Everest nine years after his death. It looked and felt so ordinary and that made the tragedy all the more poignant.
Other items of memorabilia began to emerge, particularly relating to Sandy’s rowing career. Mark Chapman, a printer from Abingdon, offered the Irvine family a 1919 Peace Regatta programme from Wednesday 3rd July when Shrewsbury had rowed against Pembroke College Cambridge. I also found two Henley flags, from 1919 and 1920, rolled up in a suitcase belonging to Willie Irvine. Then Richard Owen sent me an original Times press cutting of the account of the race between Shrewsbury and Bedford in the final of the Elsenham Cup. However, the most significant find amongst the rowing items was of Sandy’s Blue’s blazers, both the winter and summer ones. Each blazers has the tailor’s label dated Feb ’22. They had been given to his brother Kenneth for safe keeping but he felt it was better that they should be used and enjoyed by another Oxford Blue. Like the rest of the family Kenneth was a keen oarsman. He had rowed for Shrewsbury and for Magdalen College, Oxford, and had won an Oxford Trials cap but had not rowed for the university. In later years, even when a busy General Practioner in Henley, he found time to coach the post-war Magdalen crews with some success. He was well liked by these crews and he some of them well. John Gleave had rowed for Magdalen 1945-49, for Oxford 1946-48 and for Leander 1948-49. When Kenneth thought it time to pass the blazers on John was the Oxford Blue whom he knew best. He gladly accepted the blazers and promised to look after them whilst they were in his care. There is no doubt in my mind that Sandy would have been delighted to know his blazers were with such a distinguished oarsman.
John Gl
eave contacted me in March 2001 to tell me that he had had the blazers since the mid-1950s. He had been wondering what to do with them and after the appearance of the book decided to offer them back to the family for further safe-keeping. He had worn them on special occasions and apart from replacing the silk bindings on the summer blazer and letting out its shoulders a little, the blazers are unaltered.
Further searches in the attics at Bryn Llwyn did not reveal any more material directly relating to Sandy. I had hoped his photograph album from Spitsbergen might have come to light or perhaps photographs from the early part of the voyage to Darjeeling. There were, instead, boxes and boxes of correspondence relating to the family, meticulously bound and labelled by Willie. Apart from over two hundred letters from Hugh to his parents written during the First World War there was one surprise discovery. It was a travel diary from the early nineteenth century by a John Irvine who had journeyed around Switzerland on foot, crossing several passes including the Simplon and the St Gotthard over a period of two years, often in the company of a German guide. He made a trip to Wengen in July of 1827, climbing up onto the Aletsch glacier and spending a night in a hut in the shadow of the Jungfrau. The letter was written in tiny but clear handwriting with a sketched map showing all the places he stopped and the heights to which he ascended. It would seem that Sandy was not the first Irvine to set foot or ski on the Aletsch glacier. Perhaps Willie had shown this letter to Sandy before he went out to Mürren in 1923.
There was more to come: in February 2001 I was approached by two independent film makers who asked me if I should be interested in helping them to put together a documentary about the life of Sandy Irvine. They were interested in finding out as much as they could about his life prior to the Mount Everest expedition. It was great fun to find others who were as enthusiastic as I about Sandy’s early life and Dave Bimson and Mike James had knowledge that I had not about where to look for old films. They found, to my delight, footage of the 1922 and 1923 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Races. This was the first time I had ever seen film footage of Sandy and it was very touching to watch him striding down to the river carrying his oar, smiling broadly at the camera.
These two also succeeded in tracking down another individual who remembered meeting Sandy, namely Harry Abraham. Now nearly ninety-two, he was the son of Ashley Abraham, one of the so-called Abraham or Keswick brothers who had been leading lights in promoting rock climbing in the early part of the twentieth century, writing books on climbs in the Lake District and North Wales as well as putting up many first routes in the Alps. It was George Abraham who had written a letter of recommendation to the Mount Everest committee suggesting they consider including Sandy.
Harry Abraham gave the most lucid and moving interview, speaking for over two hours about his recollection of meeting Sandy Irvine at the Screes, the Abraham family home in Keswick, in the summer of 1923. He was fourteen and a half at the time but his memories were as clear as if it had happened only yesterday. He recalled the afternoon when George Abraham phoned Ashley from the photography shop they owned in Keswick to say that Sandy would be dropping in to talk about photographic equipment for the Mount Everest expedition for which he hoped to be selected. ‘My father told us that we’d be holding back supper because we’d got a chap coming to see us who was trying his damnedest to be a member of the next expedition to climb Mount Everest. “He’s getting himself fit, he’s been climbing in the Lake District and he’s been to see Uncle George”’ Ashley had told Harry and his mother.
Sandy arrived at the house a little before 6pm and after being greeted formally in the hall was led into the dining room. Harry took up his accustomed place at the right hand side of the dining table and his father sat down beside him with Sandy opposite. ‘As I remember him,’ Harry recalled, ‘he had knickerbockers on and a reaper jacket, which rather appealed to me at the time. He was extremely fit and he looked a tough cookie. I had the impression from the way he spoke with my father that he was a young chap fighting very, very hard to win support for a nomination by Odell who had suggested him for the 1924 expedition. He was a ‘getting into action’ chap.’ Harry was struck, too, by Sandy’s physique. ‘He was strong and well built with tremendously strong hands. As he ate his meal he reached out for the salt and pepper and seemed to do it with his left hand rather than his right.’ Although Sandy was indeed right handed I have often found myself wondering whether in fact he was not naturally left handed. This might explain his poor handwriting and spelling rather better than the other theory put forward that he was mildly dyslexic.
Over a dinner of poached salmon and new potatoes they talked all the while about what would happen if Sandy were picked for the Mount Everest expedition. One of the matters occupying him was what would be the best kind of camera to take to Tibet. Ashley Abraham was able to advise him that of the two best cameras available at the time the Rolleiflex 2 ½ x 2 ½ would be the most suitable for the job, seeing that it was light, reliable and producing an image of such quality that it could be enlarged to a foot or more square. Sandy seemed obsessed with a need to reduce weight to the minimum and Harry remembered him worrying about the very last detail on his climbing boots, quizzing his father about the weight and suitability of different sorts of nails whilst acknowledging that avoidance of frostbite was a very real concern. He was obviously determined to leave no stone unturned and to prepare himself in every possible way. They talked too about the oxygen apparatus and Sandy confessed that he was going to have to learn all about the system before he went on the expedition. He seemed to realise even then that it would be up to him of all the team members to ensure a functioning, preferably light-weight apparatus would be carried to the high camps for the final assault.
‘He visualised always the last ascent would be made with oxygen and the success or failure would depend on his analysis of what could be achieved with it and what couldn’t’, Harry said. ‘He seemed to be looking forward to a phase when it was going to take every bit of guts he had to put one foot in front of another and nothing was too much trouble. He was determined this was the target, to climb Mount Everest. He was prepared to give it everything he’d got; without any doubt at all. It’s the outstanding impression I have. I was just a school boy but obviously very interested and it seemed to catch his attention, the fact that I listened to every word he said.’
I couldn’t help thinking how similar Harry’s response was to that of Peter Lunn in Mürren four months later. Both of them felt the same ease in Sandy’s presence and fondly remembered the patience he showed in giving them his full attention for as long as they wanted it. He had a rare talent for getting the best out of young people and giving them confidence to talk to him although he was an adult, as Geoffrey Summers’ daughter Ann has confirmed.
According to Harry, Sandy had been staying up in the Lake District for a week walking and climbing on his own. He had been over to Wasdale Head and had climbed Scafell Pinnacle, telling them that he had found Scafell very tough indeed. He had also climbed on Great End, at the other end of the Scafell range, which has some steep crags and interesting climbing. This was news to me as I was not aware that Sandy had done any climbing following his return to England after the Spitsbergen expedition but Harry Abraham’s recollections filled in a gap. The introduction to the Abraham family came from Geoffrey Summers, not just from Odell as I had previously supposed. Geoffrey was a close friend of George Abraham and had often stayed with him in Keswick and climbed with him. Harry was always amused by the fact that Geoffrey would arrive in the newest model of Rolls Royce and once he was taken for a spin, which he described as the ‘worst example of a drive in a Rolls Royce’ he could ever imagine. George and Geoffrey shared not only an interest in climbing but also in photography and it is not difficult to see why he recommended Sandy to head for Keswick after returning from Spitsbergen to visit the Abrahams.
Sandy left the Screes, the Abraham home, after supper and Harry never saw him again. But the visit made a great impact
on him and he recalled the scene in the hall when they took leave of him. ‘I can see him now. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked up at my father and said; “If we get to within about a couple of hundred yards, however hard work, if we get that near and we can see the highest point clearly, we shall go for it. And if it’s a one way traffic, so be it.” He turned round and I was too excited to wish him luck.’
Sandy went out and walked down the garden steps to catch the bus back to the King’s Head in Thirlspot where he was staying. Ashley Abraham had been quite as impressed by Sandy as had been his son and as they came back into the house he turned to Harry and said “You heard what he said? He’s a very, very strong young man”. ‘My father was a very good judge of character, of people,’ Harry added ‘and he looked at Sandy Irvine as if he’d have been proud to have him for a son. He was tremendously taken with him. “That’s the sort of chap you want to grow up into”’ Ashley had said to him as he closed the door.
Ashley Abraham took Harry up to the Isle of Skye in 1928 where they met Benthley Beetham. Four years after Sandy and Mallory had died on Mount Everest Harry remembers his father and Beetham talking very calmly and seriously about Sandy. ‘My father and Benthley Beetham were in no doubt at all. It was simply their nouse, they reckoned the two of them got up. Sandy would have gone on his own, that’s the impression left with Ashley Abraham and Benthley Beetham and this was in the calm talk of 1928, four years after I met Sandy Irvine.’
This interview was one of the least expected developments and gave a most vivid picture of Sandy. It reminded me – as if I needed reminding – what a lasting impact he made on the people whose paths he crossed. Harry’s recollection enabled me to see Sandy from yet another perspective and brought home to me his iron determination to be selected for the expedition.