Metcalfe Ralph Ismay

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Biografie:
Sir Ralph Ismay Metcalfe (1896-1977)
Ralph Metcalfe was educated at King Edward School, Southampton, where he was an outstanding all-round athlete. After a brief spell in the civil service he joined the Royal Flying Corps, with whom, and its successor RAF, he served with distinction. After that war, he joined William Cory, bunker and coal merchants, of which he early became a director. His main work was concerned with ancillary craft engaged in port work and with building up for his firm a position in oil bunkering comparable to that they held in coal bunkering, In 1939 he was summoned to the Ministry of Shipping (later War Transport) where he was head of Tanker Division before becoming, in 1942, Director of Sea Transport, the division responsible for providing shipping for the fighting services. In this post he was directly concerned in the planning and execution of amphibious operations, particularly the cross-channel invasion of June 1944. He was knighted in 1943 and also received American, Belgian, Dutch, French and Norwegian decorations.
Apart from winter skiing expeditions, he made his first visit to the summer Alps in 1950, and he made his first climbs that year: Aiguille du Tour and Wellenkuppe – Gabelhorn - Arbengrat.
David Brown was with us on both occasions and John Watson joined us for the latter. In later years we crossed the Theodule and Beich Passes together and did a number of scrambles around Belalp and the Oberaletsch Hut, also an ascent of the Schwarzmiess in pouring rain. Each year he climbed with guides, generally with Andre Pont, with whom he became close friends. Among his ascents were the Zermatt Breithorn, Alphubel, Matterhorn, Zinal Rothorn, Cima del Largo, Piz Cengalo, Piz Badile and the Dent Blanche, the last made when he was 65. He was elected to the Club in 1962.
After he gave up climbing he still visited the Alps regularly until his health gave out. From that first year, in 1950, until his death, the Alps remained the greatest joy and inspiration both for him and his wife.
Francis Keenlyside

W. David Brown writes:
Ralph Metcalfe was laid low some years ago by a series of amputations that left him progressively more disabled. With a courage and determination that were an inspiration to his friends he made the utmost of a life thus painfully circumscribed.
Of the many joys that his disablement cut short none was more keenly felt than having to forego the companionship on the hills of his fellow mountaineers. I remember vividly how after his first severe and complicated amputation, from which for long his recovery was in doubt, he turned avidly to a re-reading of Mountains with a Difference determined if at all possible to emulate the example of Geoffrey Winthrop Young. It was only when a cruel fate demanded the amputation of the second leg that Ralph accepted that he would never again walk the heights of his beloved haunts in Belalp and Zermatt.
Ralph came to climbing only relatively late in life under the inspiration and guidance of Francis Keenlyside. With a fine record as an athlete earlier in life and an immediate love for the high mountain scene he overcame the handicap of middle age and rapidly acquired the technique to accomplish much in the classic routes of the Valais. I was privileged to enjoy companionship with him and Francis In many of his earlier climbs among which the memory of a traverse of the Obergabelhorn and the Arbengrat is outstanding as a triumph over adversity.
His later seasons before the series of amputations confined him to his home in West Mersea were spent mainly in the mutually congenial company of Alfred Zurcher, Artur and Hermann Lochmatter and Andre Pont in and around Zermatt where no less than here he has left many friends to mourn his loss.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 84, 1979, Seite 269-270


Geboren am:
1896
Gestorben am:
1977