MOUNTAINEER AND AUTHOR DEAD

Southland Times, Issue 23180, 22 April 1937, Page 5

MOUNTAINEER AND AUTHOR DEAD

LORD CONWAY OF ALINGTON (Received April 21, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 20. The death is announced of Lord Conway of Alington, the mountaineer and author. He was 81 years old. William Martin Conway was born at Rochester in 1856 and educated at Repton and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1880 he visited all the principal libraries in Europe to study early printing and engraving, embodying his researches in a "History of the Woodcutters of the Netherlands in the 15th Century.” He was keenly interested in art generally and wrote “Early Flemish Artists,” "The Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer,” "The Dawn of Art in the Ancient World," "Early Tuscan Artists,” "The Van Eycks and their Followers" and ‘ The'Sport of Collecting.” From 1884 to 1887 he was professor of art at University College, Liverpool, and from 1901 to 1904 Slade professor of fine arts at Campbridge. At one time he was in business in New York. Lord Conway, who was knighted in 1895, was most widely known as a mountaineer and explorer. In 1892 he created a record by climbing to a height of 23,000 ft in the Himalayas. In 1896-97 he explored the interior of Spitzbergen and in 1898 surveyed the Bolivian Andes where he ascended Sorata (21,500 ft and Illimani (21,200 ft He also climbed Aconagua (23.080 ft and explored Tierra del Fuego. At the Paris exhibition he was awarded the gold medal for his mountain surveys and in 1905 received the Founder’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. An early member of the Alpine Club, he was its president from 1902 to 1904. His expeditions he described in a number of books. In 1917 he was appointed director-general of the Imperial War Museum, to the organization of which he devoted much energy. At the Crystal Palace in 1920 he presented the results of his early efforts in the shape of a large and Interesting collection which formed the nucleus of that now installed at South Kensington. In 1895 Lord Conway contested Bath as a Liberal and in 1918 was elected coalition Unionist M.P. for the minor English Universities. In June 1 1930 he decided to give up his seat in the Commons at the end of the Government’s term, as he did not see eye to eye with the Conservative leaders on many questions. He was raised to the peerage on November 1931, as Baron Conway of Alington. He restored the castle there which was his home for many years. His first wife. Miss Lambard of Maine (U.S.A.) died in 1933 and in November 1934, at the age of 77, he married Mrs Iva Lawson, a widow of 32.