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LURE OF THE MOUNTAINS THE LIFE OF BENTLEY BEETHAM 1924 EVEREST EXPEDITION MOUNTAINEER

MICHAEL D. LOWES FOREWORD BY GRAHAM RATCLIFFE MBE

LURE OF THE MOUNTAINS THE LIFE OF BENTLEY BEETHAM 1924 EVEREST EXPEDITION MOUNTAINEER

MICHAEL D. LOWES

LURE OF THE MOUNTAINS First published in 2014 by Vertebrate Publishing. VERTEBRATE PUBLISHING Crescent House, 228 Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UT. www.v-publishing.co.uk Copyright © Michael D. Lowes 2014. Foreword copyright © Graham Ratcliffe 2014. Michael D. Lowes has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as author of this work. This book is a work of non-fiction based on the life of Bentley Beetham. The author’s estate has stated to the publishers that, except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of the book are true. Photography by Bentley Beetham. Reproduced with kind permission from the Bentley Beetham Trust, Durham University and the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-906148-94-2 (Hardback) All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanised, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologise for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition. Designed and produced in Adobe Caslon Pro by Nathan Ryder, Vertebrate Graphics Ltd. – www.v-graphics.co.uk Printed and bound in the UK by T. J. International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall.

Contents

Foreword �� 8 Introduction �� 12 1 Home and School �� 17 2 Birds and Books �� 27 3 Expedition that Never Was �� 39 4 Lure of the Hills �� 53 5 Challenge of Everest: The Approach �� 65 6 Everest: The Assault Begins �� 93 7 After Everest: Teaching and Climbing �� 117 8 Essence of ‘BB’ �� 139 Acknowledgements �� 152 Select Bibliography �� 155

The man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence â&#x20AC;Ś upon the lives of others. (Ruskin)

For Katherine

Foreword My introduction to Michael Lowes, in June 1999, appeared inevitable with regards to Bentley Beetham. The occasion was the Summer Gathering in north-east England for those who’d previously attended Barnard Castle School. Beetham, a member of the legendary 1924 Everest expedition, Michael and myself were all former pupils. Beetham had attended the school from 1899 to 1903 and returned as a master in 1914, where he remained until retiring in 1949. In his later years, in the 1940s, he had taught Michael, and had mentored him in the art of climbing. I had arrived as a pupil nearly 20 years after Michael had left, and three years after Beetham had passed away. Only a matter of weeks before I met Michael I had been on the summit of Everest, having made an ascent from Nepal. That same spring season, on the other side of the mountain, on Everest’s northern flanks, George Mallory’s preserved body had been discovered. It had been found in the place it had come to rest, after a fall 75 years earlier. The expedition had been steeped in mystery from the moment Mallory and Sandy Irvine disappeared into the clouds high on Everest’s North Face, on 8 June 1924, never to be seen again. Had they been the first to reach the summit of Everest? No doubt such thoughts will have passed through Bentley Beetham’s mind on many occasions in the decades that followed. Michael, in his late sixties, and with white hair, was a polite gentleman with a warm friendly smile. The enthusiasm with which he spoke about Beetham from his personal experience of climbing with him in the Lake District; and of Beetham’s collection of prints and glass slides, had me spellbound. Descriptions of Beetham in hob nailed boots, and a hessian rope tied around his waist, leading eager schoolboys up the crags of Borrowdale conjured up images of a bygone era. The room where Michael and I were standing was the very place that Beetham would give his lectures, projecting his glass slides of 8

Everest onto a large screen, as he captured the imaginations of generations of schoolboys with tales of adventure and tragedy on the world’s highest mountain. The influence he’d had on Michael, the esteem in which Michael held Beetham, had not diminished, if anything they had grown through time. ‘Would you like to view the collection?’ Michael asked after we had been talking for half an hour. ‘I’d like your opinion’. Such an invitation took no thinking about. What I could add to Michael’s extensive knowledge of the 1924 expedition I wasn’t sure. ‘I’d be delighted,’ I replied. A few weeks later I returned to Barnard Castle to look at the Beetham Collection in the office of the Old Barnardians’ secretary, which was situated in the attics of the imposing Victorian sandstone building. Two mahogany boxes sat waiting on the desk, inside lay row upon row of tightly packed, fragile, glass slides; the smell of fustiness, of old objects stored for many years, wafted from the felt-lined interiors. As I held the first glass slide up to the window I was immediately transported into the past. Images of the expedition members wearing trilby hats, plus fours and heavy leather boots, sat amongst canvas A-frame tents, with Everest as a backdrop, conjured up thoughts of the Empire, of brave men forging into the unknown and pushing the boundaries of human endurance and survival. I had seen photographs of the 1924 expedition in various books, but the quality of Beetham’s actual slides was breathtaking, the definition was as good as I could achieve 75 years later. Michael informed me that Beetham had developed many of the images on the Tibetan Plateau or in his tent at Everest Base Camp, at 17,000 feet. Although I had climbed Everest four years earlier, in 1995, by the same route taken by the 1924 expedition, my own ascent paled into insignificance as I waded through the collection with the eagerness of a schoolboy. It was Beetham’s passion for wildlife, and in particular the photographing of nesting birds that had brought climbing into his life, 9

which in time would lead him to Everest. Startling images of compassion and joy, of Tibetan people prior to the Chinese taking control of Tibet, were of a culture that is now fast disappearing. The collection was a historical treasure trove, one that Michael had been meticulously cataloguing. His research into Beetham’s life was not one that was littered with a surfeit of printed material; it would take all of Michael’s undoubted skill to piece it together. Although Beetham portrayed the image of a no-nonsense, strict schoolmaster, underneath lay a more compassionate, kindly man. In both his enthusiasm for wildlife, and of climbing, he found his confidence, and in doing so earned the respect of others that he so richly deserved. There was one incident, more than any other, which indicated the inspiration he brought to the younger generations. It was at a time between the wars, when the school was considering its teaching staff; all were university graduates, all that is except Beetham. With the pressure on public schools to provide the best possible education it had been decided to let Beetham go. News spread through the school like wildfire. Only following a plea from the then headmaster’s son, direct to his father, on behalf of the pupils, was a reprieve granted. It was an event that should have been destined for the silver screen. Beetham remained at the school until he retired in 1950. It would have been all too easy for this shy member of the 1924 expedition to become a footnote, a name of someone who had been there at the time. However, thanks to the dedication of Michael Lowes we have been given an insight into what took Bentley Beetham, a schoolboy at the end of the Victorian era, from the cliffs of northern England, to the Alps, to Everest, the Atlas Mountains and beyond.

To quote Sir Francis Younghusbandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s description of Bentley Beetham: He was perpetually boiling and bursting and bubbling over with keenness and enthusiasm â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the kind of man that nothing less than a ton of bricks could keep down: nineteen hundred-weight would have been of no use. Graham Ratcliffe Chairman, The Bentley Beetham Trust www.bentleybeetham.org

Introduction Writing in 2007, Graham Ratcliffe MBE, Chairman of the Bentley Beetham 1924 Everest Trust, expressed the hope that this book would one day be published. It is to be hoped that the wait was worth the while. Bentley Beetham was a schoolmaster at the North Eastern County School, renamed Barnard Castle School in 1924. He was a keen naturalist, a rock-climber, an ornithologist, a writer and an expert photographer. He had boundless energy and enthusiasm, all of which, without doubt, inspired generations of ‘Barney’ pupils. The vast majority of his astonishing collection of photographs is now curated by the Trust in partnership with Durham University and can be viewed online at www.bentleybeetham.org. The ornithological part of Beetham’s photographic work is held by the Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. The Bentley Beetham Trust was formed primarily for the long term preservation of what truly is an internationally important historical photographic archive, but also with the philosophy that ‘history belongs to everyone’ – that the collection should be accessible to all as ‘a valuable educational and informative resource to the broadest spectrum of people’. Michael Lowes, the author of this work, died unexpectedly in March 2009. Michael had completed the text of his biography of Bentley Beetham and he was just beginning to identify those of Beetham’s photographs which would illuminate the story of this extraordinary man’s life. Michael had not only been taught by Beetham when he was a pupil at Barnard Castle but he was also part of the Goldsborough Club which Beetham would take climbing in the Lake District as often as he could. Michael’s first encounter with Beetham’s photographic collection was as a boarding pupil in his house at Barnard Castle School where, once a year until his retirement in 1950, Beetham would present his 12

Introduction memorable talk on the epic, but fateful, 1924 Everest Expedition, on which his friends, the legendary George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, perished. It would seem that Beetham somewhat lost interest in his slides after Everest was for certain conquered by Hillary and Tenzing in 1953. In any event the slides remained at Barnard Castle School when he retired. They subsequently came into the possession of Michael’s longstanding friend and fellow York House pupil, Kenneth King, in about 1979. At that time, Kenneth himself was house master of York House and also Secretary of the Old Barnardians’ Club. A colleague mentioned to him that almost one thousand ancient 3¼ x 3¼ plate glass slides, seemingly with links to the legendary Bentley Beetham, had been discovered in a remote corner of the science department, which was then in the process of being relocated to superior accommodation. The colleague thought that Kenneth would be interested in taking custody of the slides on behalf of the Club, which indeed he was. They were duly delivered in their heavy slide cabinets to Kenneth’s rather spartan bedroom – which coincidentally had been Bentley Beetham’s old quarters – but at the time doubled as a store room for club memorabilia. Kenneth remained custodian of the slides until, to his relief, Michael took charge of them in the early eighties. Michael became chairman of the Club in 1981–82 and was a much respected figure. He became an invaluable source of information and spent considerable amounts of time over the next 25 years or so looking after, cataloguing and researching parts of the slide collection. The advice of A. L. Colbeck, an amateur photographer of some repute, was also sought and, realising the importance of the collection, he offered to put the entire collection onto 35mm negative film and from this produce a full set of positive slides. The first part of the work was accomplished in 1982 but it was only completed in 1987 with the assistance of the Durham University School of Education. Then, in 1995, to mark the centenary of the Old Barnardians’ Club, Michael wrote and presented the commentary for a short documentary video entitled The Beetham Years (1886–1963) which gave the background 13

Lure of the Mountains to Beetham’s life and interest in mountaineering, including the events of the historic 1924 Everest Expedition.

***

Michael Desmond Lowes was born in Heighington, County Durham on 29 September 1930 to Edith and Edward Lowes. His father was headmaster of the village school, which Michael attended until he was old enough to go to Barnard Castle School. Michael’s keenest interests mirrored those of Bentley Beetham, but he was also very adept at historical research and indeed his University of Newcastle M.Ed. thesis, for which he took leave from his position as Senior Lecturer in Education with St Hild’s College, Durham, was on the subject of the development of elementary education in the rural areas of south-west Durham between 1870 and 1904. Apart from his academic life, Michael researched and wrote local histories, ever willing to help the community in which he lived, which for the most part of his 54 years of marriage to Katherine (née Katherine Cragg Boulton) was Shincliffe. He was a talented illustrator and a natural teacher. The following extract from the dissertation for his Diploma in the Education of Young Children, taken at the Durham University Institute of Education, shows clearly the thought that he put into his work with children and those whom he trained to teach them. In the endeavour to express ourselves, we must gather together certain materials for our use. Just as in the building of a wall we need bricks and mortar, the tools of the trade, and the skill to use them, so in expression we need experiences, tools to work the design of our experiences, and skill in the use of our tools. But there is yet another requirement, that of stimulus, equally necessary in the building of a wall as in any form of expression. It is the trigger of the gun, the match to the fuse, causing an activity in which all the materials combine to produce some perceptible form of expression. 14

Introduction One reason this biography of Bentley Beetham was so long in its gestation is that Michael nursed Katherine for over 10 years and, just when he was ready to complete the task, and seek help on how to publish it, he succumbed suddenly to a long term illness. However, he drew great comfort in his final days knowing that, finally, it would be published. This is the fulfilment of the promise his daughters made to him. Rob Walker February 2014

Lure of the Mountains

Group of Boys at High Cup Nick

1 Home and School We peered at the small plant nestling in the damp grass with a mixture of incredulity and horror. The curlews wheeled above and their melancholy cry echoed among the dark crags. It had been a good climb. The overhanging chimney had been a challenge but now the heather fire crackled and shortly there would be Lapsang tea and war time sandwiches. In the distance a golden plover called mournfully. An authoritative voice said: ‘Common sundew: traps insects by luring them to its leaves covered with sticky tentacles; secretes a proteindigesting enzyme which works on the insect before it is absorbed.’ We took note. This was Bentley Beetham, to whom drosera rotundifolia was no mystery and who always saw the potential for learning through challenging his young charges. En route to the climb the question: ‘Has anyone seen the lapwing’s nest?’ Of course not! We did not know what we were looking for until he pointed between his feet, and there, in a scrape lined with grass, lay four olive-green eggs with dark markings as the adult birds tumbled about our heads crying in alarm. At the time we did not realise how much birds were part of Beetham’s life; how in his travels at home and abroad, he had observed, studied and written about them. Nor did we know that he had been a leading bird photographer in his younger days or, as we shall see, that it was his passion for birds which led him, ‘toad-like’, to a new passion for climbing, for the peace, the beauty and solitude of open countryside and for the challenges that mountaineering presented. This was the man who in 1924 had been a member of the expedition which attempted to climb Mount Everest and, because of its tragic and enigmatic outcome, has fascinated historians of mountaineering ever since. His reputation as a mountaineer had led him to be regarded as one of the climbers most likely to reach the summit. In the event 17

Lure of the Mountains

Barnard Castle School from South 18

Home and School an attack of sciatica prevented him from participating in the assault on the mountain and his disappointment must have been great. However, when it was all over and the story was known, it was the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;losersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; who were remembered. Did Mallory and Irvine conquer the summit? What was it that brought about their disappearance in the shrouds of mist? Those who were left behind departed after awhile, saddened and even chastened by their loss and failure. Some left a legacy in their writing and reflected on the significance of what had happened. Others remained shadowy figures, melting into the background, resuming their careers without revealing much of themselves or the part they had played. Bentley Beetham was one of these. He returned to teaching at Barnard Castle School in County Durham. He nevertheless continued to increase his climbing reputation through expeditions to various parts of the world and, in later years, Bentley Beetham became renowned for opening up the hitherto unexplored crags of Borrowdale in the English Lake District. He did not overtly seek attention for himself but he nonetheless acquired an almost legendary reputation, whether on the mountains or with his pupils. And so it is surprising, as it appears, that no one has attempted to tell the story of Bentley Beetham or tried to unravel the complexities of this extraordinary man. Some 40 years before the 1924 Everest expedition, Stanhope Road North, Darlington, County Durham might not have been regarded as the most fashionable of Victorian terraces. It had a north-facing outlook and lacked any morning sunshine. However, these spacious, genteel dwellings would have been regarded by middle class professionals of the time as attractive and desirable. The houses looked out onto a neatly arranged park, the focal point of which was its Victorian bandstand. A picture is painted of Sunday afternoon concerts, formal flower beds, promenading couples, smartly dressed, complete with bonnets, gloves, parasols and black top hats. Young ladies from the Darlington Training College for Mistresses would mingle in the crowd, bringing a touch of informality. Next door to the college, 19

Lure of the Mountains Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, founded in 1576, also made its contribution to the scene and the character of the neighbourhood. Frances Elizabeth Beetham gave birth to her second child at number 95 Stanhope Road on 1 May 1886. She called him Bentley, which was her maiden name. There were no indications in the family background that he was destined for a career which would be in any way remarkable or unusual. His father, James Weighell Beetham, had been manager and director of the old Darlington and District Bank, but the bank had gone into liquidation in November 1884, two years before Bentley was born, and it became a part of the York City and County Bank1 The family, Frances and James and their two sons, John and Bentley Beetham, appear to have been Methodists, James Beetham being listed as associated with Bondgate Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Day and Sunday School in 1885. He was not to know his two young sons, to see their potential and to influence them perhaps with his own Victorian values and choice of careers, for sadly he died on 7 July 1890, aged 59. John was six and Bentley just four years old. From then on, Frances Elizabeth had the responsibility of bringing up these two young boys by herself. Her husband left her £10,000 in his will, a not an inconsiderable sum in the 1890s (nearly £900,000 in today’s terms), and it was sufficient to provide an income which would allow her to live comfortably and provide for the education of her two young boys. John received private tuition when the time came for schooling, and at the age of 10 he was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. On leaving school he pursued a career in banking, in later years becoming manager of the Grey Street Branch of the Midland Bank in Newcastle.2 Bentley, however, first attended Mr. Bowman’s Preparatory School in Darlington and then, in 1894 at the age of eight, he joined his brother at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School.3 M. Phillips, A History of Banks, Bankers and Banking (Effingham, Wilson & Co., London, 1894) 2 Northern Echo North East People No. 165, 1 March 1957 3 Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Darlington, Admission Registers for 1893, 1894, 1899, 1900

Home and School Life in the Beetham household at this time must have been a little odd, as is recalled by one of Bentley Beetham’s former pupils, W. Pearce Chope, who visited Bentley in his retirement: I once visited him … during (his retirement) and was entertained to friendly and forceful hospitality. We got on to talking about smoking. Like me, he had never got on well with a pipe and became hooked on cigarettes. I, for my part, had eventually packed them in; but BB was quick to cap that: ‘I gave up cigars when I was eight!’ His father had been a great cigar smoker and kept his supplies in some cupboards built into the chimney-piece of the smoke-room or library or whatever. The father died when Bentley was quite a young boy, and left a considerable store of cigars in the chimneypiece. Bentley didn’t like to see them wasted and set about using them up over a period of time until they were all finished. His mother was a soft and somewhat ineffective parent and the nearest she ever came to remonstration was to murmur: ‘Oh, Bentley, do you think it’s good for you?’ Being an attractive widow, she was courted by a certain gentleman who made it his business to ‘get in’ with his sweetheart’s darling boy and sought to treat him as his best mate. Thus, when going to have a smoke in Bentley’s presence, it seemed natural for him first to offer his cigar case to his little friend. The latter politely responded: ‘No thank you, I’ve given them up’. It is difficult to imagine how circumstances must have changed in the Beetham household after the death of his father. It has to be wondered what the effect of growing up in a one-parent family, with a mother who was unable to exert a strong influence on her two boys, must have been. Particularly so when, in Bentley’s case, at the age of 13 in 1899 he became a boarder at what was then called the North Eastern County School at Barnard Castle. Was this recognition of his mother’s parental inadequacies or withdrawal of affection that, at such a formative stage in his young life, he yearned for? If this is how 21

Lure of the Mountains he perceived it, did it have an effect on his attitude towards women in later life and explain in part why he was apparently unable to form meaningful relationships with them? Whatever the reason, the County School was to act as surrogate parent and its influence on him, together with that of the environment in which it is located, was huge. Beetham pledged his loyalty to Barnard Castle School (as it became known) and ultimately he devoted his life and career there, first as a teacher, then housemaster and ultimately as second master of the school. What was so special about the North Eastern County School that it should in its nurturing of one young boy develop in him such a strong sense of commitment? The concept of the County School Movement originated in the second half of the 19th century with the Reverend J. L. Brereton, rector of Little Massingham, Norfolk. The intention of this and the Woodard School Movement was to extend the availability of a public school education with a religious, though non-denominational, ethos, to the middle classes and in particular those with a commercial and agricultural background. In his formal opening address of the North Eastern County School in 1886 the Bishop of Durham spoke of its aims and of: ‘The advantages of the corporate life of a great school.’ He expressed the hope that ‘this school might form the means of placing a sound education within the reach of those whose parents were in the possession of a moderate income, together with those boys from the elementary schools who were desirous of a higher education.’ The school went on to flourish independently of the County School Movement and, coincidentally, in 1924 its name was changed to Barnard Castle School as it remains today. It is doubtful that Barnard Castle School’s historical foundation, or its generalised aims, was the main attraction for Bentley Beetham; almost certainly it was the opportunities presented to explore and investigate the natural environment which motivated the young boy. At that time natural history as a school subject stood side-by-side with physics and chemistry. In 1900, just a year after Bentley was 22

Home and School enrolled with the school, a science block was opened with provision for teaching physics, chemistry, agriculture and drawing. In view of Beetham’s subsequent career, it is doubtless that the growing emphasis placed at the school on scientific subjects in the curriculum was a very strong influence on him. A further occupation for the young Beetham was the school’s flourishing Natural History Society. This was formed with ‘branches for the study of archaeology, botany, entomology, geology, ornithology and photography’.4 It was an important part of the fabric of school life as is shown by the presentation to the Society of a handsome glass display case by the headmaster, the Reverend F. L. Brereton. For many years this beautiful display case stood in the central hall and was used to great advantage by Bentley Beetham during his time as master. The Society started with 75 members and such was its popularity that by 1900, 50 per cent of the school were members. The following year the photographic section had grown substantially in numbers, with three new darkrooms in full use at the school. Beetham took full advantage of these facilities. By 1902 the Society had a collection of 430 slides and two of these, showing the start of the Barnard Run that year, are probably those that are still in the Natural History Society slide collection.5 It was about this time that Beetham took up bird photography. The Barnardian school magazine of 1902 printed his photographs of the nests of pheasant, sandpiper, moorhen and corncrake, the latter being abundant in the area at that time, keeping people awake for hours at night with its loud, rasping ‘crek-crek’ call. Bentley Beetham’s boarding house at school was Northumberland House and in his last year there he was a member of the house committee. He was also on the committee of the Natural History Society. He played soccer for the school and was a member of the

R. C. Hitchcock, The History of Barnard Castle School 1883–1933 (William Barlow & Son, West Hartlepool, 1933) p.33 5 ibid., pp.33, 41, 43, 46.

Lure of the Mountains

Start of the Barnard Run 24

Home and School Games Committee. However, he does not appear to have distinguished himself academically and pursuing a course of study at university seems to have had little attraction for him. But when the time came for him to leave the school in 1903, aged 16, he took with him a passion for the natural world that was to drive him to considerable achievements. That he both recognised and cherished the contribution his school made to his life is reflected by his dedication of his book Among our Banished Birds, which was published in 1927, to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;My old school at Barnard Castle where I learnt to love the open country and all wild lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;.

A young house sparrow. Bentley Beetham Archive: Natural History Society of Northumbria. 25