Bert Bissell MBE (9 January 1902 – 2 November 1998) was a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

climber and peace campaigner. Born at

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, in January 1902, he founded the Young Men's Bible Class at Vicar Street Methodist Church in the town in 1925. The bible class remained at the church for 83 years, relocating to nearby Dixons Green Methodist Church after 31 August 2008 due to the building's deteriorating condition in spite of local opposition to its closure. Bissell, who worked as a

probation officer A probation or parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probat ...

, led a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...

party from the Bible Class to the summit of

Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...

VJ Day Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on wh ...

in 1945 and constructed a "Peace Cairn", in later years the subject of some controversy. The expedition from

to Fort William was repeated annually thereafter, a tradition which continued for some 50 years and was revived in 2014. At the age of 88, he opened Dudley's new Milking Bank Primary School on 6 November 1990, a year after it first opened to pupils. He was the subject in 1995 of a biographical article by Stan Hill in The Blackcountryman magazine. In 1997 he published a book, "God's Mountaineer" (Methodist Publishing House, ). He died in November 1998, aged 96, at Nethercrest Nursing Home in Netherton after fracturing his pelvis in a fall at his home in Selborne Road, Dudley the previous spring. His funeral was held at Vicar Street Methodist Church on 10 November and he was buried in the churchyard at Glen Nevis. In 2001 a limited edition book, "Bert Bissell Remembered", with contributions by 60 local writers, was published by Fairway Folio. A monument to Bert Bissell stands in Coronation Gardens, Dudley.BBC website
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References

External links

Express & Star
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bissell, Bert 1902 births People from Dudley British anti-war activists 1998 deaths Members_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire