FAMOUS HIMALAYAN CLIMBER

Evening Star, Issue 23355, 26 August 1939, Page 3

FAMOUS HIMALAYAN CLIMBER

THE LATE BRIGADIER-GENERAL G. G. BRUCE THE MOUNT EVEREST EXPEDITIONS Brigadier-general the Hon. Charles Granville Bruce, C. 8., M.V.0., who died last month at the age of 73, was best known to popular fame as the leader of the expedition which attempted the conquest of Mount Everest in 1922; but that was only the culminating event of a lifelong devotion to soldiering and mountaineering. As a climber and explorer he had unrivalled knowledge of the Himalayas, under whose shadow practically the whole of his military career was passed. It was not perhaps generally realised (says a writer in 1 The Times ’) how closely his reputation as a mountaineer was wrapped up with his experience as a soldier, and how skilfully he utilised each in the service of the other. In the Indian Army he will be remembered as the originator and trainer of scout companies for hill warfare. On his mother’s side he was a grandson of General Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular War. Educated for the Army, he found a life exactly to his liking in the work and play of soldiering on the Indian border. Soon after his appointment to the Indian Army he was ordered to join tho l/sth Gurkhas, and he remained an officer of that battalion for over 20 years. In 1891, on his way back from home leave, he stopped at Turin to study the equipment of the Italian mountain troops, and subsequently obtained permission to start a special course in training in hill scouting for picked men in his own regiment. Incidentally he instituted the Gurkha Brigade hill race, an annual event which provoked keen competition. The value of the scout training was put test in the Tirah expedition of 1897-98. Just at first a little difficulty was experienced because the Gurkhas, in their tight-fitting breeches, could not got over the steep ground as quickly as the Afridis in their looser garments; but Bruce soon overcame that drawback by bidding the Gurkhas cut their breeches short above the knees—an improvisation out of which subsequeutly developed the regulation “ shorts.” ~,rt From his boyhood days in Wales General Bruce‘took delight in mountain climbing, and the Himalayas opened up to him an unending source of pleasure. Tn 1892 he was associated with Sir Martin Conway’s expedition to tho Karakoram Himalayas—the first purely climbing expedition in the Himalayas which was fitted out on scientific principles. Successive expeditions took him into almost every main section of the Himalayas. During the war Bruce served with his Gurkhas first in Egypt and then m Gallipoli, where he was severely wounded in both legs. In 1919 ho served with his brigade for the last time in the Afghan War of that year. In spite of his years (he was 56), there was no question in the minds of the Mount Everest committee which organised . the 1922 expedition that Bruce was the man for the leadership. A\ith him originated the idea of a corps of porters specially enlisted from among the hardiest men on the North-east Frontier for the purpose of carrying camps to high altitudes. He himselt superintended operations from the base camp at the snout of the Rongbuk Glacier (16,500 ft), and, though he attempted no “ record ” climbs, by common consent, he had his full share as leader in the triumphs of the expedition, whose “ assaulting ” parties advanced to 27.235 ft —i. 0., within I,Booft of the summit.

Bruce was again the leader when an expedition went out to India and Tibet to make the attempt in 1924. Again ho threw all the ardour and vigour of his personality into the local preparations, but on the way to the base camp he had a severe attack of malaria, and, acting on medical advice, ho handed over the command to Colonel Norton. He was elected president of the Alpine Club, and it was in that capacity that he shared in the welcome to the returning members of the expedition at a great meeting in the Albert Hall in October, 1924—a welcome overshadowed by the of Mallory and Irvine, who, after Norton had reached 2S.oooft. lost their lives in a final assault on the summit. The story of his mountaineering experiences -is told in the books winch he published from time to time. Apart from ids long and varied experience of Himalayan travel, he had a ivonderful knowledge of the chief languages spoken by the hills tribes, and the qualities which enabled him to command the devotion of his Gurkhas were no loss successful in winning for him the goodwill and loyal service of the peoples among whom his mountaineering expeditions led him.