Carslake William Bampfield

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Biografie:
William Bampfield Carslake (1893-1959)
Bill Carslake, who died in September 1959 at the age of 66, had led a very full and successful life and was still in harness as senior partner of the City of London Soliciturs, Bircham & Co., until a painful illness, which he endured with great courage and patience, claimed him while still full of the zest for life.
He was educated at Oundle and Pembroke College, Cambridge, which he left before completing his time to join the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, with whom he served in France in the 1914-18 War, being wounded three times, and being awarded the Military Cross.
His wounds undoubtedly handicapped his climbing to some extent;especially in later life.Soon after his demobilisation he joined Bircham & Co. of which his father was for many years senior partner, studied Law, qualified as a Solicitor in the year 1921, and remained throughout his life in this firm. One of the partners of Bircham & Co. at that time was E. H. F; Bradby, a very active member of the Club, who undoubtedly inspired him to start climbing. Carslake was elected to the Club in 1922 and served on the Committee in 1929.
I think that climbing provided an outlet for his spirit of adventure, a satisfaction for his love of nature and a means of physical selfdiscipline. He revelled in putting up with hardship and this was no doubt linked to his strong character and high moral standard. He has been described as one of the most truly Christian men. Though he had perhaps to strangers a slightly abrupt approach, they were soon won over by a disarming genuineness and sincerity. He loved a good joke and was fond of a leg-pull. It was typical of him that he served both in the Home Guard and on A.R.P. during World War II, indeed he bothered the authorities until they let him join both organisations and was, I believe, the first and possibly one of very few men who was allowed to do this. He was awarded the RE.M.
He was fond of having young overseas visitors to stay both during the war and after, and frequently helped strangers by introducing them to English home-life. Carslake. very quickly and enthusiastically took to regular climbing in the. Alps in summer and in the British Isles at other short holiday periods when he' sometimes joined in Winthrop Young meets at Pen-y-Pass.
I always found him a most delightful and interesting companion on a climb. He was efficient and thorough in all branches of climbing (an all-rounder) rather than being particularly brilliant in anyone sphere.
He climbed with guides early on but later he did much guideless climbing. His chief guides were Jean and Antoine Metrailler, Leon Simond, and Evaristo Croux, and his companions at various times were A. M. Carr-Saunders, Lord and Lady Chorley, Eric Fothergill, C. G. Markbreiter, J. R. T. Aldous, Robert Strickland-Constable, Leslie Letts, his sister, his children and myself.
He made over eighty Alpine ascents as well as doing many cols and minor expeditions. From 1920 to 1929 inclusive he covered much ground, climbing in the Dauphine, Mont Blanc group, Valais, Oberland, Dolomites, and Ortler group, missing only the 1924 season when he was engaged on the Oxford University Expedition to North East Land. He climbed again in 1934 and 1949.
To pick out only some of his climbing seasons; amongst various climbs in 1921 he did the traverse of the Weisshorn from Zinal to Randa, one of the first of many climbs I was privileged to enjoy with him. In 1925 he climbed with Carr-Saunders and Strickland Constable. Starting at Courmayeur they climbed the AiguiIle Innominata, traversed the Grandes Jorasses, climbed Mont Blanc by the Dome glacier route, also the Col du Geant, and the Aiguille de Triolet.
In 1926 with the Chorleys and Markbreiter, he did the Requin, Mont Mallet, Aiguille de Rochefort and traverse to the Geant, Aiguille Verte, Grepon, Blaitiere, Mont Blanc by the Mt. Maudit route, Trelalete, Petites Jorasses and Aiguille de Leschaux and Col des Hirondelles.
In 1928 he climbed with Leslie Letts and myself the Weisse Frau, the Blümlisalphorn, and the Rosenhorn, Mittelhorn and Wetterhorn in one day and the Mönch, Eiger, Jungfrau, Dreieckhorn, Weissnollen, Grünhornliicke, Finsteraarhorn and Schreckhorn.
One of his best climbs was in 1929 when with Leslie Letts and Oskar Kalbermatten he did the traverse of the Täschhorn and Dom from Saas Fee over to Randa. They had a lucky escape on the Southeast ridge of the Täschhorn when a cornice gave way under the first two of the party. Carslake was last on the rope and his very prompt action at a critical moment undoubtedly prevented the situation becoming a serious one.
Amongst his British climbs, in 1919 from March 15 to March 25 he climbed in the Lakes covering 110 miles and climbing 33,000 ft.
Carslake had a most happy family life. In 1930 he married Beatrice, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Ceresole of Lausanne, who survives him with two sons and a daughter, all three of whom are keen climbers, indeed his eldest son Harry was a member of the Cambridge Andean Expedition which climbed Pumasillo. All three of his children in their time have been leading figures in University Climbing Clubs at Oxford and Cambridge respectively. Carslake spent his holidays whenever possible later in life in Switzerland but was then limited in his climbing activities by his lameness from War wounds.
There was nothing he liked better than a gathering of family and friends in places such as Arolla, Saas Fee and Fafleralp. I shall always be thankful that a lasting friendship grew up between many members of the Carslake family and my own family. A love of the mountains was primarily responsible for this friendship as it has no doubt been for many others.
H. W. Pasteyr.

J. R. T. Aldous writes:
I first met Bill Carslake on the Oxford University Arctic Expedition of 1924. We found ourselves in the northernmost of the two sledging parties detailed to attempt the first crossing of North East Land, and then to return by the same route over the ice-cap; roughly a 200-mile journey over an unknown ice plateau some 1,500 to 2,000 ft. above the sea. The leader of the expedition, George (now Sir George) Binney, appointed Bill as “glacial chaperone” to the party, and no appointment could have been better. With his naturally strong features intensified by a beard, and looking like a cross between a member of a life-boat's crew and an Old Testament patriarch, he led us magnificently for twenty-five days through the complicated crevasse-systems of the ice-cap. Never once did man, dog or sledge come to grief.
Though I had kept up with him and knew him well, I only climbed with him for one short season in the Alps, in 1934, and then bad weather prevented us from doing very much. But once again, there was the same feeling of security which I had had ten years before when we were pulling a sledge in harness with the dogs, or when he was sounding ahead in the mists and blizzards of North East Land.
In tests of endurance, such as Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, it is steadiness, reliability and character which count above all things. Bill Carslake had these in full measure.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 65, 1960, Seite 135-138


Geboren am:
1893
Gestorben am:
09.1959