Ffrench Conrad O'Brien

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Biografie:
Conrad O'Brien ffrench 1893-1986
Conrad (Tim) ffrench, who died last year at the age of 93, was elected to the Club in 1933, recommended by Colonel Strutt on qualifications which included both Alpine and Himalayan climbs.
His early life was adventurous. Born in Montpelier Square and raised in Iraly, where his father held the rank of a papal Marquis, he decided at the age of 17 to emigrate to Canada and join the Mounted Police. This experience taught him skills of handling both men and horses which were to prove of great value throughout the rest of his life. Returning to England at the beginning of the First World War he was gazetted as a subaltern in the Royal Irish Regiment, only to be wounded and taken prisoner a few weeks later in the Battle of Mons.
During his captivity he learnt to speak fluently in Russian as well as German and French, and on release became a secret agent for British Intelligence in the guise of a military attache in Stockholm and elsewhere in Europe. This period, lasting two decades, forms the main subject of his delightful, personally illustrated autobiography Delicate Mission, a copy of which can be found in the Library. Ir ended on the eve of war in 1939 with a dramatic dash across the German frontier into Switzerland with the Gestapo at his heels.
Conrad returned to Canada in the latter part of the Second World War and lived in North America for the remainder of his life, at first in Vancouver and then in Banff where he built Fairholm Ranch, a beautifully designed loghouse in the heart of the mountains with unlimited opportunities for climbing, skiing and horsemanship, in all of which he excelled. In 1958 the house was leased by the Canadian government to accommodate Princess Margaret and her party during her three-day visit to Banff.
I first came to know him when we lived in Calgary shortly after the war and thereafter our friendship never flagged despite our being for the most part on opposite sides of the Atlantic. On a steep bank at Fairholm, Conrad taught me the principles of the Christie turn and together we climbed and ski'd in the Lake and Fairholm ranges, where I soon came to appreciate his steadiness and confidence as a rock-climber and his qualities of companionship in the mountains and in life generally. Happy days to remember with our two families in close, friendly contact.
Conrad was an artist by profession, and a highly gifted one who had studied extensively in Paris and at the Slade School in London under Professor Henry Tonks where he became an outstanding draughtsman. Later in life he taught and lectured on Art and Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and also at the Community in Loveland, Colorado, where he lived.
Lastly, but to him of first importance was his religious faith. Brought up as a member of the Catholic hierarchy in Rome inheriting the dual titles of Marquis of Castel Thomond and Senior Knight of Malta of the Irish Langue, Tim came in middle life to reject the Roman dogma, and gave himself to a search for God within the framework of a revealed, created natural order whose origins inevitably pointed to a Supreme Designer, to whom all men might become attuned by hearing his voice within themselves. In his latter years Conrad became a much-loved resident elder-statesman of the 'Community of Divine Light' at Sunshine Ranch, Colorado. Although this group does not hold orthodox Christian beliefs, Conrad's own approach to faith could be well summed up in Ronald Knox's rhetorical and epigrammatic enquiry: “How can anything matter unless there is Someone who minds?”
He was twice married and leaves a daughter, Christina, who lives in Sweden; and a son, John, in Revelstoke, British Columbia.
Edward Smyth
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 93, 1988-89, Seite 307-309


Geboren am:
1893
Gestorben am:
1986