Walker John Perceval

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Biografie:
John Perceval Walker 1900-1969
Jack Walker died in December 1969 and was buried in Grasmere churchyard a few hundred yards from Hollens Cottage, which was his home for the last few years of his life. He came from a family some of whom in earlier generations were distinguished members of the Alpine Club and whose lives are recorded in earlier Journals. His father, the Reverend J. M. S. Walker, and his uncle, the Reverend J. C. Walker, who were related to Horace 'Walker, President of the Alpine Club from 1890 to 1892 and his sister, the great Lucy Walker, were persuaded by Matthias zum Taugwald in September 1889 to climb the Matterhorn, although they had never attempted an Alpine peak before.
Jack was elected to the Alpine Club in 1950. He was first and foremost a rockclimber, exceptionally skilled on delicate and exposed rock faces. He was particularly happy in the Dolomites. In 1934 his right leg was very severely injured when a loose boulder carried him down the slopes of Gable, and it never fully recovered. After the war he climbed many of the great Alpine peaks and was leading the various climbs on Gimmer within ten years of his death, but long snow and ice climbs became increasingly tiring.
Jack was a schoolmaster who taught at Epsom College from 1927 to 1960 and initiated successive generations of boys into the arts of mountaineering in Great Britain and abroad. He had a great number of friends in the Alpine Club and the Climbers' Club, and seemed never more at home than at Helyg or the Monte Rosa Hotel. He was firm and constant in Christian belief and practice. These last few years his cottage at Grasmere has been thronged by his guests, who now
Look down upon your narrow house
Old friend, and miss you.
W. E. Radcliffe
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 76, 1971, Seite 337


Geboren am:
1900
Gestorben am:
12.1969