ALPINE DISASTER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 August 1933, Page 5

ALPINE DISASTER

FOUR ETON MASTERS KILLED FALL OVER PRECIPICE ON SWISS ALPS (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) . _ LONDON, 19th August. News has reached Eton College that four masters on a climbing holiday in Switzerland were killed on the slopes of Mount Roseg, 13,000 feet, in the Bernina Alps. A search party was starting when, a guard arrived and reported that he had seen four bodies at the bottom of a high wall of rock at an inaccessible part of the mountain. The climbers had evidently fallen down the ravine together. Their names are: Mr E. V. Slater, Housemaster at Timbralls; Mr E. W. Powell, Housemaster at Wotton House, for some years coach of the Eton eight, Mr H. F. Howson, Housemaster of Jourdeleys; and Mr C. White Thomson, science master, the eldest son of the Bishop of Ely. All were married,, All the victims were members of the Swiss Alpine Club, and were experienced climbers. It is evident that they were roped, and bad fallen together. All four were popular at Eton. It was later stated that the Eton masters were without a guide. They had successfully climbed .Mount Roseg, and wore descending, which was more perilous, when the leader apparently slipped on a loose stone on the treacherous surface combined with ice and snow, and fell, dragging the others over a precipice. A rescue party from Pont Rosina recovered the bodies. The total deaths in the Alps this year number 71. RECOVERY OF BODIES PROCESSION TO CHURCH LONDON, 20th August. Gaspar Grass, a prominent Pont Resina guide who led five others to recover the bodies of the Eton masters, says that they found three lying head downwards on top of the fourth, whose head was upward. All were in a terrible condition, their necks being broken and their bodies covered with wounds. The rope with which they were tied together was twisted about their necks. They had clearly fallen head-first. He found their watches still going. Their climbing irons were full of snow. They had not cut steps in the ice and consequently when they began to fall on the difficult surface they could not stop themselves.

Their bodies were put in sacks on skis and they were dragged to Coaz, whence they were taken to a point where a cart could be used, and reached Pont Resina where the bell was tolled. The bodies were met by the Mayor and other notabilities, and English visitors, who walked at the head of the procession to the little church where tho bodies were placed on stretchers, covered with sheets and alpine flowers, and placed before the altar in the sanctuary which has sheltered many victims of mountain fatalities throughout the centuries.