Longland John Henderson

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Biografie:
John Henderson Longland (1936-1991)
John Longland's death from a brain tumour at the age of 55 on 24 December 1991 was the more poignant for the contrast between his latter life dogged by ill-health and adversity and the exceptional achievements of his early years. As the elder son of an illustrious father, John might have succumbed to the psychological handicaps sometimes attributed to that relationship. Jack and John shared many mountain adventures together but John's achievements were entirely his own and he remained quintessentially his own man. His character was complex, combining the combativeness of an alpine pugilist with an incisive intellectualism and artistic bent. He could be abrasively caustic and this, compounded by an iconoclastic insouciance, sometimes created mauvais pas which more guileful men might have avoided. But those who knew him admired his courage, leadership and imperturbability. More particularly we loved him for his humour, exuberance and easy gift of friendship.
Born on 21 May 1936, John was educated at the Dragon School (of fond memory) and Oundle before going up to Jesus College, Cambridge in October 1954. In this traditional and unhurried atmosphere, the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club fermented with growing confidence. Led by a line of distinguished presidents - Brasher, Smith, Band, Chorley, Sutton, Langmuir and Downes - it had become the vogue to emulate Brown and Whillans and have a go at modern alpine routes. The Club's success was reflected in its membership. In 1951 this stood at 57. Six years later, when John succeeded Bob Downes as president in 1957, it had risen to 170 - a record to that date.
John arrived on this scene as a wunderkind with an impeccable climbing lineage. Unconcerned with age or reputation, he already knew and was known to everyone in the climbing world. His first roped climb had been at six. At eleven he was doing routes on Lliwedd with Alf Bridge and David Cox. As an 18-year-old still to do National Service he exuded competence and confidence; was a Climbers' Club member and had twice explored Iceland in 1953 and1954 - in the latter year with a party of five other school leavers sponsored by the National Research Council to survey Thorisjokull's glaciers.
For climbing novitiates such as myself, the event of the CUMC Helyg meet in December 1954 was Longland's pre-dawn prologue on that first wintry morning - a dip in the Nant Yr Ogof when he literally broke the ice. Bumptious perhaps but not braggadoccio for John was ever an addict of the mountain plunge at all seasons. That first novice meet he led with tact, skill and patience for he was always a sympathetic mentor happy to climb with anyone. His mountaineering credo was stated in 'The New Order' (CUMC] 1956) in which he exhorted the young to 'find respect and gratitude for the history and traditions which surround this cliff (Lliwedd) for they are closely interwoven with us linking our predecessors and ourselves - the ways of the mountaineer'.
At Cambridge, John had a voracious climbing appetite. In the two years 1954 to 1955 alone, he recorded over 300 climbs in Britain from Bosigran to Ben Nevis with over 50 different companions. But he was first and foremost a mountaineer who combined an elegant and economical climbing technique with the explorer's curiosity. For many undergraduates, two years of National Service had tapped springs of adventure in what was still a relatively untraveled world. The 1950s were, par excellence, the age of the university expedition. Of these, the Cambridge Pumasillo expedition 1957, led jointly by John and Simon Clarke (his CUMC successor president) was one of the most ambitious of its time. What distinguished the Cambridge Pumasillo from the 1954 Cambridge Rakaposhi and 1957 Oxford Haramosh expeditions was that Pumasillo, with an average age of 21, had no elder statesmen on board. At 20.300ft in the Cordillera Vilcambamba, Pumasillo was reckoned to be the highest virgin peak outside Asia. It had resisted several previous attempts including that of the 1956 British Huagaruncho expedition. Its ascent by the Cambridge party was an exceptional achievement -lightly recorded in John's cable to the expedition's patron John Hunt 'All up, all down, all well, Pumasillo'.
With Pumasillo climbed, John had reached a summit of personal achievement at 21. In that same year he was elected to the Alpine Club. But while other members of the expedition returned home, John had fallen to the lure of South America and was to stay on in Peru for another two years. At Cambridge he had read Natural Sciences intending to become a doctor. Now he turned to freelance journalism with the Andean Times, taught English and, with his gift of tongues, became fluent in Spanish.
In 1958 John undertook a second Andean expedition to the Cordillera Blanca. His star was still in the ascendant on returning to England in 1959 when he became Senior Under Officer at Mons. During his National Service with the Royal Corps of Signals he spent much time training men in Norway. He might have stayed a soldier but instead joined Lever Brothers for whom he worked from 1962 to 1978 including six years spent in Bogota, Columbia. But his golden climbing years had been in the 1950s. Although he remained active on British crags and made an exceptional contribution to the Climbers' Club as assistant secretary, secretary, treasurer and vice-president (eventually, to become like his father, an honorary member) he effectively denied himself the presidency. In 1974 he had been appointed head of Lever Brothers Public Relations Planning but by 1978 he had left the company. Three years later his marriage was dissolved. At a time which should have seen the consolidation of a career and domestic fulfilment, he was left with neither.
John was still only 40 when in 1976 he embarked upon what proved to be his last alpine season with Charles Clarke, Peter Mould and me. He had not climbed in the Alps for some years and on the first day huffed and puffed his way up to the Vittorio Emanuele II hut. But he was always one to upset the odds and soon enough had rolled back the years. Whether on the complete Paradiso traverse or the 34-hour imbroglio on the Chardonnet, John was our imperturbable anchorman. His innate mountaineering ability, athleticism, clear-headedness and humour made him the ideal companion and this a hugely enjoyable holiday.
John's latter years were marred by ill-health and vicissitudes but his last job at the Wildfowl Trust, Slimbridge from 1985 to 1988 satisfied his love of conservation and the outdoor life and gave further scope for his literary talents. As editor of Wildfowl World he transformed a pedestrian black and white periodical to a modern colour magazine with 60,000 subscribers.
When John telephoned me on 20 November 1991 I had not'seen him for a while. With characteristic robustness he announced that he had a brain tumour and that radiotherapy had left him with 'recalcitrant trousers around a recently acquired two inch gap'. But he was determined to attend the 1991 Alpine Club Dinner and we planned a CUMC reunion table with the Morgans, Peacocks and Stones. Sadly, this never took place. John was too ill to travel to London and three weeks later, on Christmas Eve, he died within the bosom of his family at Bakewell. John was devoted to his two children Jack and Bridget, and beloved of his family. He leaves a host of friends with memories of a warm, multi-talented man who experienced set-backs in both his professional and domestic life 'that would have broken lesser spirits. He had been an outstanding mountaineer who never lost his zest or sense of humour and retained to the end a courage, dignity and life force that those who knew him will never forget.
J G R Harding
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 98, 1993, Seite 317-319


Geboren am:
21.05.1936
Gestorben am:
24.12.1991