Kerr Alexander Creighton

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Biografie:
ALEXANDER CREIGHTON KERR
Year of Election
1908 - 1931
It is with deep regret that members will have learned of the death of A. C. Kerr, after a painful illness in Boston, U.S.A., on February 5 this year, after being a member of the Club for eight years.
Kerr was born on August 2. 1924, and brought up in Inverness, his father being Headmaster of the High School, Inverness. Perhaps from this home .background he developed his intense interest in people, which deepened his enjoyment of travel and enabled him to make many friends in various countries.
He went to school at Inverness Royal Academy and continued his training in the Dental School of Glasgow University, where he graduated in 1948.
He was immediately called up for the Royal Army Dental Corps for National Service and was drafted to the R.M.A. Sandhurst where he was in charge of dental surgery. He was much interested in his work and through it became interested in preventive dental medicine. Returning to civilian life he refused the more lucrative prospects of dental practice and won a Nuffield Scholarship for research, enabling him to go back to Glasgow University where he later took a degree in Physiology.
He then joined the dental staff of Guy's Hospital, for research, mainly on the performance of the salivary glands, until he joined a research team in Boston for a three-year period in 1958. His interests ranged widely from music to mountaineering, extending to sailing, squash, and Continental travel. He played a violin in the Guy's Hospital Orchestra and carried a recorder to mountain huts in his rucksack. Being already experienced in hill walking, camping and sailing, he joined the R.M.A.S. Mountaineering and Exploration Club, doing his first climbs in North Wales and Glen Nevis, in preparation for his first introduction to the Alps which took place in 1949 when he took a party of R.M.A.S. cadets to a military camp in Austria where guides had been laid on to lead them. It was typical of him that he developed a friendship with his own party's guide, Herr Lager, and corresponded with him for many years. He continued his British climbing in the Glasgow University Climbing Club during his further three years there. During this time he combined his Alpine summer holidays with leisurely travel, often hitch-hiking in the days of currency restrictions, his kilt arousing the interest of many motorists. He made friends easily and it was like him that he was asked and accepted to be godfather to the son of friends he made in the Langental.
Until 1954 he visited the Alps each season, and less regularly afterwards, climbing in guideless parties with the various contacts he had made at Sandhurst, particularly G. F. Dixon, Donald Ross, O. B. Howl and A. J. Imrie. He became a thoroughly reliable exponent on ice and rock. He figured in G. F. Dixon's account of a holiday in the Zermatt District, 1950, when our fare included Monte Rosa, Dent d'Herens, the Schalligrat of the W eisshorn, the traverse of the Pointe de Zinal, Col du Mountet, and the ascent of the Hornli Ridge in conditions which robbed us of all view. Among his other climbs were the Aletschhorn, N esthorn, the Aiguille de Bionnassay traverse, the Aiguille Ravanel, and the first ascent of Pt. 3675 on the ridge between the Geisshorn and Aletschhorn.
He was imperturbable in the face of difficulty or danger, but gave no countenance to slipshod methods or unnecessary risks. He deeply enjoyed his days in the mountains, was always a cheerful and optimistic companion, having an abundant interest in everything around him.
Though he was not an outstanding performer, at his death the Club has lost a genuine lover of our sport and of the hills and many of us mourn a great friend.
To his wife we extend our sympathy in her bereavement.
O. B. Howl.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 66, 1961, Seite 419


Geboren am:
02.08.1924
Gestorben am:
05.02.1961