Watson John Armstrong Fergusson

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
John Armstrong Fergusson Watson (1904-1989)
John Watson died in 1989 at the age of 84. He had been a member of the Alpine Club for nearly 35 years, but his climbing started in the 1920S when he first began walking and scrambling in the British hills. He was a long-standing member of the Climbers' Club, the Wayfarers and the Rucksack Club.
Throughout the period after the Second World War he was engaged in manufacturing industry in the Midlands, finally running his own company. This facilitated his access to the hills of North Wales and the Lake District, where he was a frequent weekend visitor throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. During this time he was a dedicated supporter of the Climbers' Club and served almost continuously from 1945 onwards either on the northern subcommitee, the main committee, or as hut custodian.
His first Alpine season was in 1947, when I climbed with him for a fortnight of perfect weather. He climbed the Besso, the Tete Blanche, the Zinalrothorn and the Grand Cornier, as well as the Col Durand and the Pointe de Zinal. Most of his subsequent Alpine climbing was in the Valais. In later years his active climbing was severely curtailed by hip trouble, but he continued to walk in the hills, and he was a regular attender at Alpine Club meetings until well past his 80th birthday.
John was proposed for election to the Alpine Club by Dick Viney, who wrote:
He is a man of considerable. strength of character, of great independence of mind and very strong loyalties. But in spite of being an individualist to the very core of his nature, he devoted great time and trouble to those institutions of which he is a member.
John Watson was a good companion in the hills - a strong, steady and reliable climber who made no claims to be a virtuoso. My most vivid memory of him is of his descent through the night from a point just below the summit of the Täschhorn where, having more or less completed the ascent of the Teufelsgrat, he was struck by falling rocks and suffered a broken shoulder-blade and a dislocated shoulder. His gallant descent is described in AJ 57, 172-180, 1949-50.
J.H. Emlyn Jones
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 95, 1990-91, Seite 303-304


Geboren am:
1904
Gestorben am:
1989