Watts Nicholas Hugh Laurence

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Biografie:
Nicholas Hugh Laurence Watts 1885-1969
N. H. L. Watts was born on 8 June 1885 and served thirty years in the Indian Army, 8th Punjab Regiment, becoming proficient in seven oriental languages. On 1. October 1910 he married Mabel Mackwood. The last six years of his life were marred by blindness, and he died on 18 October 1969. His wife and their daughter survived him.
In the Alps he climbed mainly in the Valais. His first guideless climb was the ascent of three peaks near Sonamarg, Kashmir, with three other army officers. So little information about these peaks was available to the party that their success was equivalent to first ascents. He was elected to the A.C. in 1937. Watts had an abiding interest in mountains, whether climbing, ski-ing or just trekking, fishing or shooting in the hills of Burma, the Western Himalaya and Pir Panjal. His charm and good nature made him a delightful companion. There could be no better memorial of his love of the hills than these lines which he wrote in the Lidder Valley, Kashmir:

Nightfall at Arau
The glory of the pine-clad ridge seems scarcely real,
The wonders of the snow-topped crags a passing dream;
As mighty landscapes fade at dusk, I almost feel
I touch the mysteries of the Universal Scheme.
The struggling city's toil and stress recede afar,
And nature's melody alone the ear enthralls;
The dying afterglow yields to the evening star,
The velvet night falls softly, blessing as it falls.
Here in the nobler air of Nature's own domain
The soul from human jealousies obtains release,
The littleness of man's ambitions is made plain,
And God invites the troubled heart to share His peace.
E. A. L. Gueterbock
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 75, 1970, Seite 339


Geboren am:
08.06.1885
Gestorben am:
18.10.1969