Scope: Documents and photographs relating to Sheffield University Mountaineering Club

Transcription

1 University of Sheffield Library. Special Collections and Archives Ref: MS 204, MS 244 Title: Sheffield University Mountaineering Club Archive Scope: Documents and photographs relating to Sheffield University Mountaineering Club Dates: Level: Fonds Extent: 2 boxes Administrative / biographical history: The collection includes documents and photographs relating to the history of the Sheffield University Mountaineering Club and its members. The initial donation (MS 204) consisted of photographs, together with some accompanying documentary material, which principally record the life and outdoor activities of Frederick Wilson Jones, who, with W.T. Catton, founded the Sheffield University Mountaineering Club. Photographs relating to Mountaineering Club activities cover the years 1932 to 1934, and there is also a CD-ROM containing 54 slides from the Sheffield University Speleological Society, formerly the caving section of the SUMC, dating from Freddy Jones attended the Central School, Leopold Street, Sheffield, in its early years, leaving in 1925 at the age of 16 to enter a bank. After six years he left to do a degree in Metallurgy at Sheffield University, graduating in 1935 with First Class Honours. He then went to the firm of Metro-Vickers in Manchester where he did his Ph.D. in Crystallography. During World War II he worked at the National Physical Laboratory. In 1945 he worked in Germany with the Control Commission, and subsequently moved to Firth Browns in Sheffield. William ( Bill ) Thorpe Catton attended the Central Secondary School in Sheffield, and entered the University to do an Honours Degree in Zoology at the same time as Freddy Jones, also graduating in 1935, and completing a Dip.Ed. the following year. He then lectured at the London College of Pharmacy until 1940, serving in the Army from 1940 to 1946, and finishing with the rank of Captain. In 1946 he did research in the Zoology Department at Sheffield, and then took a post of Lecturer in Physiology in the Medical School at King s College, University of Durham (which later became the University of Newcastle) in In 1967 he completed his Doctorate at Sheffield, and worked in the Zoology Department at Newcastle on problems of compound-eye vision from 1952 to 1970, retiring as Reader in Neurophysiology in The activities of the Sheffield University Mountaineering Club were, in the period when Jones (who had begun climbing at least as early as 1921 at the age of 12) and Catton were members, largely confined to climbs in the Sheffield area (Stanage Edge and Wharncliffe Crags), the Peak District, North Wales and the Lake District, using primitive equipment. Club members at the time, some eight in number, included T.R. Stobart, also a Sheffield student of Zoology, later Photographer on the 1953 Everest Expedition. Jones and Stobart did one climbing tour together in the Stubai Alps in Austria.

2 The initial photographic collection was presented to the University Library in July 1997 by Mrs. Louisa Jones, wife of Freddy Jones, who stated that her husband climbed with Chris Bonington, and that both founders of the Sheffield University Mountaineering Club are referred to in one of his books on the history of climbing, though Catton s name is given incorrectly there. Mrs. Jones participated in the Mountaineering Club s activities, though was not herself a member of the University. She later sang with the University s Bach Choir for a period of 41 years. The later sections of the archive (MS 244) were received from 1999 onwards. Source: Donated by Mrs. Louisa Jones and others System of arrangement: As received Subjects: Mountaineering - Great Britain Names: Sheffield University Mountaineering Club; University of Sheffield Conditions of access: Available to all researchers, by appointment Restrictions: None Copyright: According to document Finding aids: Listed

3 Itemised list (MS 204): 204/1 Scrap Book Contains 120 photographs, of which 29 date from the period 1932 to Mrs Jones placed the photographs in the scrap book and has added annotations. /2 Memoir and notes, 24 Jul 1997 By Mrs Louisa Jones. Typescript. The memoir is a brief account of Mountaineering Club activities, and the notes refer to some individual photographs of the Mountaineering Club period in the scrap book. The manuscript cover-sheet is entitled University of Sheffield Climbing Club 1931 to 1934 ; other information provided suggests that 1931 should be /3 Letter, 18 Jun 1997 Mrs Louisa Jones to the University Library. Manuscript. /4 Letter, 23 Jul 1997 W.T. Catton to the University Library. Manuscript. /5 Letter, 26 Aug 1997 W.T. Catton to the University Library. Typescript. /6 Memoir, 25 Aug 1997 By W.T. Catton. Typescript. Very brief memoir of Sheffield University Mountaineering Club ( ), together with Curriculum Vitae William Thorpe Catton. /7 CD-ROM, 30 Nov 2005 Contains 54 slides from the Sheffield University Speleological Society, formerly the caving section of the Sheffield University Mountaineering Club, dating from Includes listing of contents of slides

4 Itemised list (MS 244): 244 / CLE CLEGG, Edward John. Diary of an expedition to the Himalayas in Typescript transcription from the original, July ll. (MS 244) Donated 1999 Edward John Clegg (MB, ChB 1948, MD 1964) was a medical student at the University of Sheffield, and a member of the SU Mountaineering Club. He became a Demonstrator at Sheffield in the Department of Human Biology and Anatomy ( ), then moved to the University of Liverpool, before returning to Sheffield as Lecturer (1963), Senior Lecturer (1965) and Reader (1973). In 1977 he moved as Professor to the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. The Diary is his personal account of the first successful assault on Kanchenjunga, the world s third highest mountain, in 1955, by an expedition mounted by the joint Himalayan Committee of the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society, on which he served as medical officer. At the time he was an anatomist at the University of Liverpool. 244 / DUE / 1 DUERDEN, John Croasdale. Sheffield Days, : [photograph album]. 189 photographs [various sizes]. B/w. (SLI 6) photographs relating to SUMC activities in various UK and European locations with 1 ll. of notes. Donated / DUE / 2 DUERDEN, John Croasdale. Slides used in Freshers Lecture, slides. B/w. 8x8 cm. (SLI 7) with 2 ll. of notes. Donated 1999 John Duerden (undergraduate , BSc (Zoology) 1949) was President of the SU Mountaineering Club in 1947, and donated the above collection of photographs recording the activities of SUMC for , together with the set of slides used in his Freshers Lecture about the Club in The Duerden family have a close association with the University of Sheffield - John s wife Patricia (née Whinnerah, BA 1949) was also a member of SUMC, and features in the photographs; her mother, Doris Grundy (BA 1918) preceded them, and their two sons have since become Sheffield Graduates. 244/MIS Miscellaneous material, added in June Originally on loan from the Sheffield University Mountaineering Club to the University Library and shelved in book sequence. 1. Tables giving all the 3000-Ft. mountains of England, wales and Ireland, compiled by D.C. Maxwell (Privately printed for the author, 1959). Printed, 8pp.

5 2. Excursiones arqueologicas a Camagüey, por Manuel Rivero de la Calle y Antonion Nuñez Jimenez (Universidad Central de las Villas Cuba, Editado por los Departmentos de Investigationes Antropológicas e Investigaciones Geográficas; 1958). Printed, 62pp. 3. The North Wales Hostels Handbook 1938, edited by K.C. Bruce (Liverpool: Merseyside Youth Hostels Ltd., 1938). Printed, 56pp. 4. Guide to the Island of Rhum, editors W.H. Craven, S.A. Craven (Junior Mountaineering Club of Yorkshire, [194?]. Printed, 16pp. 2 copies 5. Nylon rope and climbing safety, by K. Tarbuck (Edinburgh: British Ropes Ltd., [1961]. Printed, 35pp. 6. The price paid (Inverness-shire Police Committee, 1957). Printed, 7pp. 7. Elementary mountaineering: a handbook for pupils (London: The Mountaineering Association, [c.1960]. Printed, 50pp. 8. Holidays in the mountains (Manchester: Mountaineering Activities Ltd., 1967). Printed, 20pp. 9. A brief glossary of Welsh topographic names for walkers and cavers, by Arthur Hill (Leamington Spa: Cave Research Group of Great Britain, [1951]). Printed, 19pp. 10. Bulletin de la Section de Paris-Chamonix du Club Alpin Francais no. 24 (April 1951). Printed, 16pp. 11. Pitons, by L.J. Griffin (British Mountaineering Council Circular no. 454 [n.d.]). Printed, 5pp. 12. Nylon Mountaineering Ropes (British Standard 3104: 1959). Printed, 8pp. Includes ts. notes from the British Mountaineering Council and the British Standards Institution 13. A climber s guide to modern equipment (Ambleside: Frank Davies, The Climbers Shop, [n.d.]). Printed, 30pp. 14. Blacks of Greenock - Range of camp equipment [n.d.]. Printed, single fold-out sheet 15. Ellis Brigham [equipment catalogue] [n.d.]. Printed, 27pp. 16. The deadly lifeline: Christian Bonington gives a warning to climbers. Newspaper article. Printed, 1p.