Cooke Herbert Edward

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Biografie:
HERBERT EDWARD COOKE
1866- 1960
When he was a young boy, Herbert Cooke's imagination was fired by reading “Scrambles amongst the Alps” as it appeared in The Boys' Own Paper, but though his heart was set on Alpine climbing it was many years before he was able to visit Switzerland.
As agent for the Menabilly estate in Cornwall, and later as Land Agent for the County of Surrey, with a young family, he had little time or money for Swiss holidays. In 1919 he became Agent and General Manager for the Whiteley Homes Trust, a post from which he retired in 1937, having seen the Whiteley Village grow to maturity.
In 1925 he paid his first visit to the Alps, going to Engelberg and Zermatt; in the following year he went to Chamonix, where he formed the habit of going off about 5 a.m. on long walks which often lasted till seven in the evening. Here he made his first effort on the snow at the age of 60, and achieved the ascent of Mont Blanc. Other visits to Switzerland followed, with ascents of the Wetterhorn and of the Dent du Midi, and at the age of 66 he climbed the Matterhorn by the Swiss ridge, returning by the same route. His last climb was on the Zinal Rothorn at the age of 69, but mountain sickness compelled him to give up at the saddle.
Cooke joined the Alpine Club in 1933, having been proposed and seconded by Sir George Barnes and Sir William Gillett respectively: no doubt his keenness and his age helped to secure his admission. He regularly attended lectures at the Club, and was employed as auditor, in which capacity he kept a strict eye on accounts in the difficult war years (1942- 44). Dr. Longstaff, for whom he had the greatest respect, invited him to join the Committee in 1948.
He had many interests: he played the organ and trumpet, and had a passion for books, and was a devoted churchman. His love of the Alps never left him, and in his last years he looked with especial affection at his pictures of Zermatt and the Matterhorn.
C.B .
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 65, 1960, Seite 261-262


Geboren am:
1866
Gestorben am:
1960