Bentley Beetham (1 May 1886 – 5 April 1963) was an English mountaineer, ornithologist and photographer, and a member of the 1924 British Mount Everest expedition."Bentley Beetham"
bentleybeetham.org. Retrieved 26 September 2011

Early life

Beetham was born in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

in 1886, the second son of James Weighell Beetham and Frances Elizabeth Beetham."Home and School"
bentleybeetham.org. Retrieved 26 September 2011 His mother's maiden name was Bentley. Beetham's father, a bank manager in Darlington, died when Beetham was four years old. Until the age of eight Beetham was educated at Mr Bowman's Preparatory School; he then attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Darlington, where his brother John was already a pupil. From 1899 to 1903 he attended the North Eastern County School (now called Barnard Castle School) at

Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit ...

, where he was a

boarder Boarder may refer to: Persons A boarder may be a person who: *snowboards *skateboards *bodyboards * surfs *stays at a boarding house *attends a boarding school *takes part in a boarding attack Other uses * ''The Star Boarder'', a 1914 American ...

. He left school at the age of sixteen.
The Lure of the Hills
' at bentleybeetham.org. Retrieved 27 September 2011

Career

For some years after leaving school Beetham worked in an architect's office in

, then from 1903 to 1914 he was busy with field research, writing books and articles, photography and giving lectures. In 1914, having established himself as a leading ornithologist, he returned to the North Eastern County School as a

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

, teaching

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

."After Everest"
bentleybeetham.org. Retrieved 26 September 2011 A

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity and organization devoted to the worldwide animal conservation, conservation of animals and their habitat conservation, habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained London Zo ...

, in 1927 he was elected a member of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

. He retired in 1949, and moved to

Cotherstone Cotherstone is a village and civil parish in the district and county of Durham, England. Its historic county is Yorkshire, being just south of the River Tees. Cotherstone cheese is a celebrated delicacy of the village, famed since at least 1 ...

. In 1962 he was disabled by a stroke and spent his last year in a nursing home, where he died on 5 April 1963. His ashes were scattered from the top of Shepherd's Crag,

Borrowdale Borrowdale is a valley and civil parish in the English Lake District in Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland, England. It is in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, and is sometimes referred to as ''Cumberland Borrowdale'' to distinguis ...

Ornithology

From 1903 to 1914 Beetham devoted much time to his passion for ornithology. Amongst his expeditions, always undertaken with a camera in hand, were trips to the coast in the north-east of England, where he developed a technique for photographing

gannets Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus ''Morus'' in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. They are known as 'solan' or 'solan goose' in Scotland. A common misconception is that the Scottish name is 'guga' but this is the Gaelic nam ...

that involved abseiling down cliffs with the rope attached to a stake that was driven into the ground at the top of the cliff. Beetham at this time used a cumbersome and heavy Sanderson half-plate field camera.

Rock climbing and mountaineering

Beetham started rock climbing in the English

Lake District The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...

, although his re-ascents of the sea-cliffs on the north-east coast, once he had captured images of birds on photographic plates, involved much use of the hands. In the Lakes he used

Wasdale Head Wasdale Head (; traditionally ) is a scattered agricultural hamlet in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Wasdale Head claims to be home of the highest mountain (Scafell Pike), deepest lake (Wastwater), smallest church an ...

as a base and commenced a friendship with

Howard Somervell Theodore Howard Somervell OBE, FRCS (16 April 1890 – 23 January 1975) was an English surgeon, mountaineer, painter and missionary who was a member of two expeditions to Mount Everest in the 1920s, and then spent nearly 40 years working ...

. Together they made ascents of the classic Lakeland climbs in the period before the First World War. After the war, Beetham and Somervell started climbing in the Alps, initially under the supervision of the 60-year-old Godfrey Solly in

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (; ; (no longer in use)), more commonly known simply as Chamonix (), is a communes of France, commune in the departments of France, department in the regions of France, region in Southeastern France. It was the site of the f ...

, and subsequently on their own and without guides. In 1924, Beetham, along with Somervell (who had already been on the

1922 British Mount Everest Expedition The 1922 British Mount Everest expedition was the first mountaineering expedition with the express aim of making the first ascent of Mount Everest. It was also the first expedition that used bottled oxygen while climbing Everest. The attempt wa ...

), was chosen by the

Mount Everest Committee The Mount Everest Committee was a body formed by the Alpine Club and the Royal Geographical Society to co-ordinate and finance the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition to Mount Everest and all subsequent British expeditions to cli ...

to be a member of the ill-fated 1924 British Mount Everest expedition, on which Mallory and

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier * Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia * Irvine Island * Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada * Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut Scotland *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotlan ...

were killed. During the expedition Beetham suffered from

dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...

and

sciatica Sciatica is pain going down the leg from the lower back. This pain may go down the back, outside, or front of the leg. Onset is often sudden following activities such as heavy lifting, though gradual onset may also occur. The pain is often desc ...

and never made it higher on the mountain than Camp III at c. 21,000ft. In his 2012 book ''Into the Silence'', Wade Davis argues that Beetham – whom he considered an ill-advised selection for the expedition – prevented the most qualified and promising English climber of the period, Richard Graham, from joining. Graham had been a conscientious objector during the First World War, which became the basis of a whispering campaign by Beetham, even though Beetham had not fought himself.Wade Davis, ''Into the Silence'', Vintage, 2012, pp. 473–4. By contrast, Somervell wrote, in an obituary to Beetham, that "the whole expedition was severely handicapped by having our best climber forced into inactivity" and Captain John Noel wrote: It was during this expedition that Beetham took his highly regarded photographs of

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. Beetham made numerous expeditions to other ranges in the world, including the Tatra Mountains of Czechoslovakia,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, the

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

, the

Lofoten Lofoten ( , ; ; ) is an archipelago and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Lofoten has distinctive scenery with dramatic mountains and peaks, open sea and sheltered bays, beaches, and untouched lands. T ...

islands and

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

. He is most associated with the

High Atlas The High Atlas, also called the Grand Atlas, is a mountain range in central Morocco, North Africa, the highest part of the Atlas Mountains. The High Atlas rises in the west at the Atlantic Ocean and stretches in an eastern direction to the Moro ...

mountains of

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, which he visited on five separate occasions. His first visit was in 1927, together with G. Thompson, during which he made the first British ascents of many peaks in the

Toubkal Toubkal (, ), also Jbel Toubkal or Jebel Toubkal, is a mountain in central Morocco, located in the Toubkal National Park. At , it is the highest peak in Morocco, the Atlas Mountains, North Africa and the Arab world. Located south of the city o ...

region.Robin G. Collomb, ''Atlas Mountains Morocco'', West Col, 1980, p. 30, SBN 906227089 Shepherds Crag - geograph

Beetham's name is familiar to anyone who climbs in the Borrowdale valley in the Lake District. He made the first ascent, often solo, of numerous classic climbs in the valley, including "Little Chamonix" and "Corvus", and wrote the third edition of the

Fell & Rock Climbing Club The Fell & Rock Climbing Club (or the Fell and Rock Club or FRCC) is the senior climbing club covering the English Lake District. It was founded in 1906–1907 and, amongst its other activities, publishes rock climbing guides to the area. It ...

guidebook to the valley, published in 1953.R. J. Kenyon (ed.), ''Borrowdale'', 5th edition, Fell & Rock Climbing Club, 1990, The 1990 guide to the valley notes that Beetham, "with the Goldsborough Club of Barnard Castle School, surveyed every sizable crag in the valley, working out well over a hundred routes with a wide range of difficulty". Beetham was responsible for developing the most popular crag in the valley, Shepherd's Crag, which lies just above the main road that runs beside

Derwentwater Derwentwater, or Derwent Water, is a lake in the Lake District in North West England, immediately south of Keswick, Cumbria, Keswick. It is in the unitary authority of Cumberland (unitary authority), Cumberland within the ceremonial county of ...

. In an article in ''The Journal of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club'' (1946), Beetham explained the attraction of climbing in Borrowdale, comparing the experience with that found on the more traditional higher crags of the Lakes.

Bentley Beetham Trust

A collection of Beetham's photographs – those he took in Tibet on the 1924 expedition, considered "an important historical record of Tibetan culture","Collection Themes"
bentleybeetham.org. Retrieved 26 September 2011 as well as photographs of Barnard Castle,

Teesdale Teesdale is a dale, or valley, located principally in County Durham, North East England. It is one of the Durham Dales, which are themselves part of the North Pennines, the northernmost part of the Pennine uplands. The dale is named after ...

, the Alps, the Atlas and Tatra mountains – is held in Palace Green Library next to

Durham Cathedral Durham Cathedral, formally the , is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Durham, England. The cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Durham and is the Mother Church#Cathedral, mother church of the diocese of Durham. It also contains the ...

. The collection is supervised by the Bentley Beetham Trust in conjunction with the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

Bibliography

Selected publications by Beetham

* ''The Home-Life of the Spoonbill, the Stork and Some Herons'', Witherby & Co., 1910 * ''Photography for Bird-Lovers. A practical guide ... With photographic plates by Bentley Beetham'', Witherby & Co., 1911 * 'On the positions assumed by birds in flight', in ''British Birds'', 1911 * 'The Buff-backed Heron' in ''Wild Life'', vol. 6 (1915) * 'The Return Journey', chapter 8 of ''The Fight for Everest 1924'', Longmans, Green & Co., 1925 * ''Among Our Banished Birds'', Arnold, 1927; Longmans, Green & Co., New York * ''Borrowdale'', Fell & Rock Climbing Club, 1953

References

External links

The Bentley Beetham collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beetham, Bentley 1886 births 1963 deaths English mountain climbers English ornithologists Photographers from County Durham Fellows of the Zoological Society of London People educated at Barnard Castle School 20th-century British zoologists