Machin Cyril Bruce

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
Cyril Bruce Machin (1890 – 1963)
By the death of Cyril Machin, mountaineers in the Midlands and North Wales suffer the loss, above all, of a very public-spirited enthusiast. He came to active mountaineering in middle life and, having already a good background of hill walking, he quickly reached a high standard as a rock-climber. His experience soon extended to the main climbing areas of the British Isles, to the Alps, especially the Dolomites, and to Norway.
This modest, friendly, imperturbable man will I think be best remembered, however, for the help he gave to others to individuals, especially the young to various organisations connected with open air activities; as instructor at Whitehall School, Buxton; on the Peak Park Planning Board and as Secretary of the Peak District Committee of the British Mountaineering Council.
A very great debt is owed to him by the Midland Association of Mountaineers, which he joined in 1937 and of which he was President for the two years before his death, and an honorary member. He adopted as his second home Glan Dena the Association's hut at the head of Llyn Ogwen and spent much time there after his retirement in 1951 from the profession of engineer and surveyor. He led M.A.M. meets in the Dolomites and elsewhere and made many difficult ascents, and he continued even after his accident, to organise 'base camp ' work at these meets, notably in the Brenta and at Courmayeur. He was elected to the Alpine Club in 1944.
In 1953 he met with a terrible fall while abseiling at Windgather, and greatly was he respected for the courage and determination with which he faced death for many weeks but refused to accept it. After months of immobility in hospital where limbs and organs had been gradually patched up, a man of lower calibre would have been content to take up some less exacting pursuit; but Cyril Machin's enthusiasm for mountains and his love of people could not be extinguished. With a couple of sticks and a special motorised vehicle he continued to take a very active part in the running of Glan Dena, in the M.A.M. 's alpine meets and in his work in Derbyshire.
Two small personal incidents may be related. After he had' recovered' from his accident I was with him at Glan Dena to advise about improvements which he had ever in mind; there was need to turn on the water supply at a valve some fifty or more yards away. He insisted on doing this and, using one of his sticks and the heavy 3 ft. turnkey for supports, he hobbled off across the rough ground preferring not to accept my help. On another occasion we were to meet in· Beddgelert and he was a little late for the appointment. He explained that at times he got tired of the As and for a change had driven his little vehicle over the mountains along unfrequented roads. No thought here for the risks in which so handicapped a traveller might be involved on such a journey.
He died, in the hills as he would have wished, on September 14, 1963, while attending an Anniversary Dinner of the M.A.M. at Beddgelert. He was not, I think, a Rotarian but their motto was his guiding principle and surely his most fitting epitaph ' Service above Self'.
Claude E. A. Andrews
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 69, 1964, Seite 174-175


Geboren am:
1890
Gestorben am:
14.09.1963