Enthusiastic climber, artist, author - probably in that order - Edward Whymper, (1840-1911), lived here at 82 Waldegrave Road, Teddington for about five years from 1907 until his death aged 71 in 1911.
I notice the dates place him at around 67 years of age living across and down the road a few yards from an eight year old Noel Coward, who was born, and lived, at No. 131 from 1899 until 1908 (see Post 31).
The second of eleven children, (my goodness, his poor mother), Whymper was born at Lambeth Terrace in London. Trained to be a wood-engraver, and commissioned to produce a series of alpine scenery drawings, in 1860 he made extensive forays into the central and western Alps.
Whymper went on to follow a not dissimilar path to his older brother, artist and explorer Frederick Whymper, becoming one of the foremost climbers during the golden age of British mountaineering in the 1850s and 1860s, and the driving force behind the first ascent of the Matterhorn. He was also associated with the exploration of the Alps, as well as a bit of an artist and author.
With physicist John Tyndall, Whymper engaged in a race to reach the top of the Matterhorn by way of the Italian side of the mountain for nearly three years. After seven failed attempts, on his eighth on July 14th 1865 he finally made the ascent by the Swiss ridge, a steep and menacing passage that previously had been thought too steep to climb. On the descent, however, a member of his party slipped and pulled down three more, all falling to their deaths. Whymper and two guides were saved when the rope broke. One of the best known of all mountaineering accidents, Whymper records the event in his book Scrambles Amongst the Alps, (1871). Must say, if I’d been a grieving relative or friend I’d have taken umbrage at that title - a master-class of understatement. Illustrated with his own engravings, the book contains his apparently famous, in climbing circles, words of caution:
“Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end.”
I should mention that the survivors were accused of cutting the rope that connected them to the fallen men, but the trial that followed the tragedy found no conclusive evidence, and Whymper and the Taugwalders were acquitted.
Whymper visited Greenland twice with the intention of crossing the ice cap, but ultimately considered the undertaking would prove too costly for him, (presumably financially or health-wise, or perhaps a bit of both), and he decided against it.
He climbed in the Canadian Rockies and South America, including an expedition he organised to Ecuador primarily to collect data for the study of altitude sickness, and the effect of reduced pressure on the human body.
As a result of his experiences in the Alps Whymper designed an A-frame ridge tent which came to be known as the Whymper tent. Tents using his general design were in common use from the later part of the 19th century to the mid-20th century.
Wymper's original drawing
Painting by Lance Calkin
In 1906, aged 65, Whymper married Edith Mary Lewin aged 23. This signalled the start of the short period when home became Teddington. (I do hope he wasn’t attracted by nearby Strawberry Hill in the hope of doing some local climbing, he’d have been very disappointed). They had a daughter, but separated in 1910, a year before his death.
In 1911, shortly after returning to Chamonix from another climb in the Alps, Whymper became ill, locked himself in his room at the Grand Hotel Couttet, and refused all medical treatment. He died alone there. A funeral was held four days later, after which he was buried in the English cemetery in Chamonix.
Home for the last five years of his life is now Waldegrave Clinic.
Biollay Cemetery, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. What a gravestone, and what a setting
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