Charles Edward Mathews (4 January 1834 – 20 October 1905) was an English mountaineer, a leading member of the

Alpine Club Alpine clubs are typically large social clubs that revolve around climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Many alpine clubs also take on aspects typically reserved for local sport associations, providing education and training courses, se ...

and writer on mountaineering. In his professional career as solicitor he was active in public affairs in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Life

Mathews was born in

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a market town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester, England, Worcester. Located north of the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour and east of the River Severn, in th ...

, the third of six sons of Jeremiah Mathews, a Worcestershire land agent, and his wife Mary Guest. Of his five brothers, the eldest, William Mathews (1828–1901) was one of the leading pioneers of Alpine exploration and was president of the

from 1869 to 1871. The fourth brother, George Spencer Mathews (1836–1904), was also a noted mountaineer. Both brothers were prominent figures in municipal and social life in

Professional career

Mathews was educated at King Charles I School, Kidderminster, served his articles in Birmingham and London from 1851, and was admitted solicitor in 1856. He practised in Birmingham, acted as solicitor to the

Birmingham School Board __NOTOC__ The Birmingham board schools were set up very rapidly after the ''William Edward Forster, Forster'' Elementary Education Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 75) was enacted, covering England and Wales. Over forty were created in Birmingham. ...

throughout its existence, and as Clerk of the Peace from 1891 till his death. He was a member of the town council from 1875 to 1881 and for nearly fifty years exerted much influence on the public and social affairs of Birmingham. One of the founders and subsequently chairman of the parliamentary committee of the

National Education League The National Education League was a political movement in England and Wales which promoted elementary education for all children, free from religious control. It was founded in 1869 and dissolved in 1877. It developed from the Birmingham Education ...

, he founded in 1864 the

Birmingham Children's Hospital Birmingham Children's Hospital is a specialist children's hospital located in Birmingham, England. The hospital provides a range of specialist services and operates the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for the city. The serv ...

, in conjunction with

Thomas Pretious Heslop Thomas Pretious Heslop FRCP (7 November 1823 – 17 June 1885) was a nineteenth-century social reformer, philanthropist and physician and founder of several hospitals in Birmingham where he spent most of his professional career. Heslop was ...

, and took part for many years in its management; he set on foot the agitation which led to the reorganisation of King Edward's School, and served as a governor of the school from its reconstitution in 1878 till his death; a lifelong friend of

Joseph Chamberlain Joseph Chamberlain (8 July 1836 – 2 July 1914) was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist after opposing home rule for Ireland, and eventually was a leading New Imperialism, imperial ...

, he was from 1886 one of the local leaders of the

Liberal Unionist Party The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

Mountaineering

He was introduced to the Alps in 1856 by his brother William, with whom the idea of forming the

originated; and the foundation of the club was definitely decided upon in November 1857 by the two brothers, a cousin, Benjamin Attwood Mathews, and Edward Shirley Kennedy; the last, aided by Thomas Woodbine Hinchliff, taking the leading share in its actual formation (December 1857 to January 1858). Mathews played his part in the exploration of the List of mountains of the Alps over 4000 metres, High Alps that followed during the succeeding decade, and he continued to climb vigorously for more than forty years, long after all the other original members of the Alpine Club had retired from serious mountaineering. He was president of the club from 1878 to 1880, and took a prominent part in its affairs until the last year of his life. He was also one of the founders (1898) and the first president of the Climbers' Club, an association formed with the object of encouraging mountaineering in England and Ireland. He died in Edgbaston on 20 October 1905, and was buried at Sutton Coldfield. Mathews married in 1860 Elizabeth Agnes Blyth, and had two sons and two daughters.

Writings

Besides numerous papers in the ''Alpine Journal'' (volumes i–xxii) Mathews contributed articles about the guides Melchior Anderegg and Jakob Anderegg to ''Pioneers of the Alps'' (1887), and a retrospective chapter to Clinton Thomas Dent, C. T. Dent's ''Mountaineering'' in the ''Badminton Library'' (1892); but his most important work in Alpine literature is ''The Annals of Mont Blanc'' (1898), an exhaustive monograph, containing a critical analysis of tho original narratives of the early ascents of tho mountain, and a history and description of all the later routes by which its summit has been reached. Mathews himself climbed it at least twelve times.

References

Attribution *

External links