Gibson Jack Traverse Mends

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
Jack Traverse Mends Gibson 1908-1994
Jack Gibson scaled no 8000-metre peaks, did no north faces with hammock bivouacs, opened no fearsome new routes on seemingly smooth rock pillars. But he loved the mountains, being in them, climbing, trekking, camping, sitting by a camp fire swapping yarns, or singing, rafting, exploring, working out new routes, canoeing, yodelling, skiing. Above all, skiing. 'You will never convince a skier that there is any sport to compare with skiing,' he once wrote. And he had the great gift of being able to communicate his enthusiasms to youngsters. He was 'a completely natural schoolmaster' (so described by the Director of Studies at Sandhurst who met him in 1951) and that, perhaps, was his greatest achievement.
The son of a naval officer, Jack Gibson was born on 3 March 1908. He was educated at Haileybury and Cambridge, where he got a half blue for fencing. He joined the staff of Chillon College, near Montreux, with responsibility for winter sports, and spent three happy years there. He climbed and skied regularly with the Swiss Alpine Club; his climbs included the Javelle of the Aiguilles Dorées.
The depression hit Chillon College, and Jack, having decided that teaching was his vocation, taught at Ripon Grammar School for the next four years. In 1937 he joined the Doon School at Dehra Dun as housemaster, and India became his home until his death. During periods of special leave he served in the Royal Indian Navy Volunteer Reserve 1942-45, and as Principal of the Joint Services Wing 1949-1951. In 1992, the three Service Chiefs of India, wh'o had all been his pupils at the JSW, helicoptered to Ajmer to pay joint tribute to him.
In 1953 he was appointed Principal of Mayo College, Ajmer. In his 15 years there he revitalised that moribund institution, making it one of the foremost schools in India. In 1960 he was awarded the OBE by the British Government and in 1965 the Padma Shri by the Indian Government.
He celebrated his very first summer in India, 1937, with a seven-week expedition in the Himalaya with John Martyn, when Tenzing ? recommended to them by Brigadier Osmaston - accompanied them. Tenzing was with Gibson on two further expeditions and they formed a close friendship which was unaffected by Tenzing's later celebrity. 'He was quite unchanged and unspoiled,' wrote Gibson after having Tenzing and his daughter to lunch at the Gymkhana Club in 1961.
Jack Gibson was in the Himalaya almost every summer for many years, and often in Gulmark in winter for the skiing. But his great achievement was the initiation of dozens of youngsters to climbing and skiing. Several well-known Indian climbers - Nandu Jayal, Gurdial and Jagjit Singh ? had their early experiences with him; he regularly took parties of schoolboys to the mountains, and Har-ki-Doon in the Garhwal Himalaya became his favourite stamping ground. It was from here that he made the first ascent of Black Peak.
Gibson was President of the Himalayan Club from 1970 to 1973 and he represented it at the Meet in Darjeeling to celebrate the Twientieth Anniversary of the first ascent of Everest. 'I feel greatly honoured,' he said in his speech. 'Though not an Indian, I have lived in India for 36 years.'
And he had lived there for 57 years when he died in October 1994. The 'completely natural schoolmaster' was mourned by thousands of his former students all over the country; he will continue to live in their hearts and minds.
Aamir Ali
Quelle: Alpine Journal Vol. 101. Nr. 291, 1996, Seite 321-322


Geboren am:
03.03.1908
Gestorben am:
10.1994