Howard John William

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Biografie:
John WiIliam Howard (1917-1988)
John Howard's climbing career spanned over half a century, from the first entry in his 'Record of Ascents and Passes Crossed' - 'walked up Slieve Donard (Mourne Mountains), August 1929' - to the last record of a walking holiday in the Engadine in June 1986. There were interruptions in the war years but even then, when he was able to get a couple of weeks' leave in 1940, he used it to climb Kilimanjaro, and in 1943 he made two short trips to Mt Kenya.
His abiding love for mountains and mountaineering developed in the university long summer vacations which he spent with a Swiss family in the Val d'Herens. Officially he was improving his French, but he managed to kill two birds with one stone by learning mountaincraft with the local guides as well. He recorded Alpine seasons in 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1938, and lists the Dent Blanche, Zinalrothorn and Matterhorn among his peaks and passes.
When Howard left Cambridge his degree and personality met the high standards set by the British Colonial Service, and 1939 found him in Kenya as an administrative cadet. This apprenticeship in the art of government was cut short by call-up to the army and posting to the 5th Battalion The King's African Rifles, with whom he served as Intelligence Officer; in Abyssinia against the Italians, where he distinguished himself at the crossing of the Awash River Gorge, and in Madagascar against the Vichy French.
In 1944 the Colonial Government claimed his services once again, and he resumed his career in the Kenya administration. By then too, he had accumulated sufficient expeditions to be elected to the Alpine Club.
1945 saw his third visit to Mt Kenya (AJ 55, 284-287, 1945-46). In the following year he made his fourth visit there, this time in the company of Arthur Firmin, when this formidable partnership made the first ascent of the S face and SW ridge of Batian. Also in 1946, he was able to return to the Swiss Alps, his first love, where he added the Mittaghorn, the Südlenzspitze-Dom, the Eveque and the Dent de Zaillon to his list. During the same leave from Kenya he renewed his acquaintance with the Lake District.
In 1947, 1948 and 1949 Howard made more ascents on Mt Kenya, including the second ascent of the W ridge of Batian and the SE face of Nelion. In those days a visit to these peaks had almost the glamour of exploration, and few of the present well-trodden routes had been done. He was one of the elite few who helped to change all that. Drawing on his European experience, he took the full gamut of alpinism to colonial Africa. His climbs on Mt Kenya, many with his friend Arthur Firmin, are recorded in AJ 60, 270-275,1955. He would be the first to agree that the achievements of some of the 'hard men' of recent years are in a different league from his pioneering climbs. Nonetheless, today's climbers on Mt Kenya are climbing on foundations he helped to lay.
A keen member of the Mountain Club of Kenya, Howard gave unstinting help and encouragement to many. In 1959, with Fullerton, he took Kisoi Munyao Up Shipton's route to become the first African to reach the summit of Mt Kenya.
Then, of course, there was Himal Chuli. The 1955 Kenya Expedition to this 7864m peak grew out of the long and fruitful partnership between Howard and Firmin, who both dreamed of achieving something bigger and higher than anything in Africa or Europe. They were the inspiration and joint leaders of the enterprise.
There were many occasions when Howard's administrative training stood the party in good stead - in encounters with the local administration en route to the mountain, but most importantly when the expedition ran into the snowline well below the normal summer level, and many miles from the intended Base Camp. The 70 porters, most of them clad only in thin cotton
clothing and without shoes, said they weren't employed to carry over snow and they certainly weren't equipped to sleep on it. Howard, wearing his 'Bombay bowler' and looking the part, held a good old-fashioned baraza, as practised by all proper District Commissioners in Colonial Africa in those days, and remained calm and dignified. After patient negotiations, lasting nearly all day, the porters agreed that several of1hem would do a carry over the snow the next day, drop their loads and return to sleep - not enough to save the situation, but much better than nothing.
The story of the rest of the expedition, and the tragic death of Arthur Firmin after breaking a leg on easy boulder scree just above Base Camp, has been told by Howard in this journal (AJ 60 et seq). Firmin's death within a few hours' carry of the 'Shining Hospital' in Pokhara, after the epic struggle to get him off the mountain, was an immensely traumatic experience for Howard which left a lasting effect.
All this took place as Howard was steadily climbing the ladder in the Colonial Service; in 1950 he was selected to run a three-year course in colonial administration at Cambridge University. He spent some time as a District Commissioner, did a spell with the African Land Development Board, and became acting Provincial Commissioner before returning to Britain in 1962.
The following year saw him back in Kenya undertaking a special assignment on boundary demarcation at the time of independence. This was followed by an assignment with the Overseas Development Administration in West Africa. Later he was recalled from retirement to join the cadre of distinguished colonial officials who went to the newly independent Zimbabwe to observe the first general election.
In 1965 he was elected a member of the committee of the Alpine Club, and he continued to make regular trips to the Alps, Wales, Scotland and the Lakes - sometimes just with his family, sometimes with fellow members of the Alpine Club and the Mountain Club of Kenya on their end-of-the-year meet. He was always ready for a walk on the North and South Downs, and he continued with excursions of this kind right up to his death.
All who were privileged to know Howard say that they remember him as much for his outstanding personal qualities as for his climbing capabilities. His life was governed throughout by the strength of his Christian principles which even seemed to manifest themselves at his funeral, described by some who were there as being infused with a happy and quiet confidence. On rock he also had the power to inspire total confidence in those climbing with him: one knew for sure that everything was firmly under control.
John Howard died at the age of 71 after a fall, in no way a climbing accident, while camping in the south of France. He leaves his wife Elizabeth, a member of a well-known Kenya farming family, a son Jonathon who is a regular Army officer and two daughters - one of whom, Sarah, he imbued with his own love of mountains and mountaineering.
John Hull, John Blacker, Charles Richards, Bob Caukwell, David Wilson and Sarah Howard
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 95, 1990-91, Seite 299-301


Geboren am:
1917
Gestorben am:
1988