Wilson Michael Henry

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Biografie:
Michael Henry Wilson 1901-1985
Michael Wilson was one of a large Quaker family in Birmingham. The Wilson clan had their roots in Kendal and Little Langdale; a 17th century ancestor on his return from Ireland only just survived a snow blizzard on Langstrath. Michael's mother was partly from the Loweswater-Cockermouth area-Fletchers, who had, back in the 18th century, farmed Wasdale Head. Some of my own early memories were of Christmas at Wood House and of that grandmother going up Grassmoor and Great Gable and of Uncle Michael, talking about the wonderful Fell and Rock Club and about a man called Pallis who slept on Ben Nevis in a tent made (why?) of tape. Then would come-in the evening-more of Michael's conjuring or gymnastic tricks.
He was educated at Bootham and at the Royal College of Music. In the 1920s he was showing great promise as a violinist and also in other fields: as a mountaineer, in inventive photography and in stage lighting. He was a close friend of Adrian Boult and by 1929 had worked his way up to be sub-leader of the British National Opera Orchestra under John Barbirolli.
Serious climbing started in 1922 with R B Graham and R S T Chorley. There is a delightful account by Chorley in the 1922 Fell and Rock Journal of their strenuous short season with Joseph Georges (le Skieur): 'Eight Days'. They started from Arolla: first to the Bouquetins, then they traversed the Dent d'Herens, then the Matterhorn from Breuil and then the Dent Blanche by the Viereselgrat. On the Matterhorn, after a hungry and stormy 36 hours in the hut, Chorley recounts how Joseph reconnoitred the icy tower ahead and came back to say that it would go. It was all “icicle bedeck”, but the “three Lakeland climbers were only too pleased to put their pride in their pockets, and pull themselves up like tourists.”
The day was one of those very clear ones which often follow a storm ... and the view from the top which we reached after about five hours struggle was one of great panoramic magnificence- in range stretching from Tyrol to Dauphine, from Monte Viso to the dull Mediterranean line-I swear it was-to the Oberland with its forest of snowy heights. What a rich casket ...
. We were alone on that great mountain, thanks to the difficulty of the conditions, and for once the subject of almost universal interest. The telescopists of Breuil and Zermatt had to be content with our short appearance ... Breuil indeed turned its flashing mirrors upon us and Wilson answered back by means of his binoculars. What a glorious feeling to be on top of this manacled giant ... (1922, p 75)
One doubts whether the Breuilers got the message, but the attempt to send it was characteristic. Michael used to recall how, next day, they seriously discussed with Joseph Georges the possibility of doing the N ridge of the Dent Blanche, which was still unclimbed. What they did, however, was the Viereselgrat-a first for any Arolla guide; or so at least Joseph assured them.
Several seasons of enterprising, mainly guideless, climbing followed-in the Valais, the Oberland, Dauphine. Much of this was in the company of Dick Graham and Basil Goodfellow. My brother, Alan, and I learnt our rock climbing from all three of them and well remember the serious fun of it all. If you watched Michael climbing or playing the violin or using tools or making corks disappear you would probably have noticed the remarkable speed and assurance of his hands. There was, somewhat mysteriously, a special kind of humour and wisdom in almost everything he said and did.
In 1929 came big changes. Michael gave up professional music and-to a large extent-mountaineering and dedicated himself thenceforward to work for mentally handicapped children. To many of his friends and relatives this seemed a very odd move. The inspiration for the change was the teaching of Rudolf Steiner and the anthroposophical movement in Germany. Michael Wilson and Fried Geuter founded the Sunfield Children's Home in Selly Oak. Despite difficulties it prospered and grew, and eventually moved to a large house on the edge of the Clent Hills. Here a community of teachers, nurses, doctors, farmers, artists and musicians worked together, with payment only for their basic needs. To an outsider it would sometimes seem strange that the central concern of this gifted, cosmopolitan community should be to offer music, art, drama and colour to severely handicapped children-to enrich their spiritual lives. Thousands of parents, over the following 50 years, came to learn otherwise. They saw children who had seemed 'hopeless' enjoying beauty and friendship and a pattern of life which had seemed far beyond them. During the post-war years Michael with his wife Betty raised large sums for research and for the development of Sunfield.
Michael Wilson possessed and cultivated an exceptional range of gifts. He became an accomplished water-colour painter. He devoted much of his time in later years to research on colour-following Goethe's theory, rather than Newton's. Many of his findings paralleled and preceded those of Edwin Land in the United States. He contributed papers on colour to the Physical Society and later became Chairman of the, by then autonomous, Colour Group of Great Britain. His writings on colour and his translation of Rudolf Steiner's The Philosophy of Freedom were marked by a lucidity and depth which is not common among the enthusiasts of new movements.
In the 1950s and 60s Michael Wilson took up rock-climbing again and then, over several years, he learnt gliding. He taught and lectured widely in the United States and Europe on colour and on anthroposophy. In Britain he came to assume the mantle of elder statesman in the movement, while gradually withdrawing from work in Sunfield Home. He would often return, with his family, to the hills of N Wales, sometimes for music, sometimes for climbing. In his 83rd year he completed-with some effort and great joy-the circuit of the Snowdon Horseshoe.
In the Prelude' to his book, What is Colour? The Goethean approach to a fundamental problem, Michael Wilson paints a word picture of the mountains which conveys something of their beauty and of his own artist's sensibility:
The mountains have emerged from the night fresh and clean in the mantle of their deep violet blue, and a liquid light pours across the land calling forth colour as it goes. As the sun climbs and warms the earth, the mountain slopes disclose their form in a play of pink light and purple shadow, while beyond them the distant ranges lie serene and still, cool blue beneath the pale transparent turquoise of the rain-washed sky-a colour changing with infmite smoothness to the deep cobalt overhead. In front of us the wind-swept autumn grass and the dying bracken glow gold and orange brown in the morning light and even the outcrops of cold grey rock have joined in the scheme of things and show their sunlit faces against shadows of soft violet grey ...
Robin Hodgkin
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 92, 1987, Seite 293-294


Geboren am:
1901
Gestorben am:
1985