James John Egbert

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Biografie:
John Egbert James (1876- 1965)
James was a solicitor by profession. After many years in private practice in the City of London he left, after the 1914-18 war, to become secretary of the United Alkali Company in Liverpool. Shortly after this company was absorbed into the newly formed Imperial Chemical Industries he became, in 1929, the secretary of I.C.I. He held this post until his retirement in 1945. During these years he also served as a vice-president of the Trade-marks, Patents and Designs Federation, and was a member of the Board of Trade Trade-marks Committee in 1933. He was a member of various advisory committees to the Ministry of Health.
An I.C.I. colleague and successor as secretary writes of James as 'a first-rate lawyer with a passion for essential detail; his thinking was as clear as a crystal and never tortuous'. 'A hard, determined worker in all he undertook, James never spared himself. He was outspoken and fearless in argument. To some, no doubt he could appear formidable; but his nature \Vas essentially cheerful and kindly; those who worked at close quarters with him sooner or later came under his spell and became devoted to him.'
It is less easy to do justice to his record as a mountaineer, for he gave up Alpine mountaineering when he married in 1909, and none of his earlier companions has survived him. He was an active and regular visitor to the Alps in the later 189o's and in the first decade of this century. He climbed with his own group of companions who included vV. w. James, his brother, also a member of the Alpine Club, who also died in 1965. The records in his family show that his party made many of the conventional climbs around Zermatt and Chamonix and in the Oberland.
With his brother, W. F. Reeve and two guides he made one new route; an ascent of the Altels from the north by a direct route from the Balmhorn hut onto the North ridge. This involved some difficulty on the steep lower slopes above the Gasterental, and with five on the rope the ascent took twelve hours. The S.A.C. Oberland guidebook infers that this route has rarely if ever been repeated. The expedition is recorded in A.J. 23. 534·
Although James did not undertake any major climbing again after his marriage, he certainly maintained his interest in the mountains, and in the 192o's was a regular member of the Pen-y-Gwryd Easter parties. He is to be seen in many of the groups in Geoffrey Winthrop Young's famous album of P-y-G and Pen-y-Pass photographs, and in a picture which hung for many years in P-y-G showing Crib Goch in snow James could be recognised in the foreground.*)
B. R. Goonfellow.
*) A few lines of this notice are reprinted, by permission, from The Times, August 10, 1965.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 71, 1966, Seite 194-195


Geboren am:
1876
Gestorben am:
1965