Brettel Frederick Gilbert

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Biografie:
Frederick Gilbert Brettel (1884 - 1965)
Gilbert Brettell was elected a member of the Club in 1933 on the nomination of Waiter Barrow and W. P. Haskett-Smith; he certainly shared the latter's ebullient enthusiasm for mountains and zest for life's activities in general.
He did not take up serious alpine climbing, however, till he was fortyfour years old, but in his first season a traverse Mont Blanc du Tacul – Col Maudit - Mont Blanc indicated that he was a good' go-er' on alpine snow and ice, which at that time would have been almost new to him. He was already an experienced leader of British rock-climbs, and it was in this capacity that many in the Midlands knew him best, not only for his ability and his infectious enthusiasm, but for his kindliness; all qualities which helped to provide a very happy initiation to rock climbing for the many younger men and beginners he so readily roped-up.
He joined the Midland Association of Mountaineers in 1924, and later served for many years on its Committee and led meets in Wales, Scotland and in the Alps. He was elected its President in 1933, and in 1951 joined its small band of Honorary Members.
He practised in Birmingham as a Chartered Patent Agent and, as would be expected of him, his vigour and enthusiasm led him to the summit of his profession. He was President of the Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, happily in the Institute's Jubilee Year (1932-3). He was a member of its Council for over forty years and was an authority on the law relating to Trade Marks, and was so acknowledged by his membership of the Board of Trade's appropriate Departmental Committee. In his professional work, as in his mountaineering, he will be especially remembered for the guidance and kindness which students and juniors received so readily at his hands.
I spent many weekends climbing with Brettell and we were together for several seasons in the Alps, the last in 1937, when he seemed, almost exasperatingly, still to have the vigour and energy of a man in his twenties; and so it was through, and after, the War until arthritis put an end to most of his outdoor activities.
He was a man of short stature, but of stocky build and very strong in arms and fingers. This gave him a tendency, anyhow on British rocks, to consider that handholds were what really mattered; perhaps to the detriment of style. All who climbed with him, however, knew that he was essentially a safe climber, always with a reserve of power in store. I remernber perhaps a rather trivial incident, but one in which this reserve of strength was practically demonstrated after he had had the misfortune to break a finger. We arrived at the foot of the Great Gully of Craig-yr Ysfa, his finger immobilised in a sort of tubular bamboo splint. Many would regard this as a definite handicap on a difficult climb, but he led it without hesitation and with no apparent inconvenience we who followed certainly had no misgivings about his safety.
Claude E. A. Andrews.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 70, 1965, Seite 364-365


Geboren am:
1884
Gestorben am:
1965