Robert Lock Graham Irving (17 February 1877 – 10 April 1969), was an English schoolmaster, writer and mountaineer. As an author, he used the name R. L. G. Irving, while to his friends he was Graham Irving.
Life and family

Irving was the son of an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
clergyman. He was educated at
Liverpool College,
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
and
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
.
[''Who Was Who'', ]A & C Black
A & C Black is a British book publishing company, owned since 2002 by Bloomsbury Publishing. The company is noted for publishing '' Who's Who'' since 1849. It also published popular travel guides and novels.
History
The firm was founded in 18 ...
, online edition, 2020. He returned to Winchester as a master, teaching French and mathematics
[Anderson, Jack]
Robert Irving, Conductor, Dies; Music Director for Dance Was 78
dated 17 September 1991, at nytimes.com, accessed 14 July 2008. and becoming 'Master in College', in charge of the ancient
house
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
for the holders of foundation scholarships, and founded a climbing group known as the Winchester Ice Club.
He married Oriane Sophy Tyndale in 1908 and had two sons, Francis Graham Irving (1910–87) and
Robert Irving (1913–91), and two daughters, Mary Oriane and Clare. Robert became a distinguished conductor and was musical director of the
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...
, 1958 to 1989, as well as following in his father's footsteps as an amateur mountaineer. In 1991, his daughter's name was Clare Peters.
[
Irving died on 10 April 1969, a few months into his ninety-third year.
]
Mountaineering
In ''The Romance of Mountaineering'', Irving writes that he was introduced to mountains at an early age: "My earliest recollections of a summer holiday centre round the ascent of a Welsh hill."[R. L. G. Irving, ''The Romance of Mountaineering'', London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1935, p. 3] Several years later he began exploring the hills on his own:
Irving became a member of the Alpine Club in 1902 and was an advocate of climbing without a mountain guide, which in those days was thought by some to be reckless, but which Irving undertook "on account of boredom f being guidedand expense". His climbing partner – a fellow Winchester schoolmaster – having been killed in a fall early in 1904, Irving went on a solitary climbing trip to the Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
in the Easter vacation of that year. Finding the experience unsatisfactory – "If you climb for novelty and excitement solitary climbing is the kind to satisfy you; but if you climb for recreation of mind and body it is a failure" – he was left looking for new people with whom to climb during the summer of 1904. He took to finding companions – he called them "recruits" – for his alpine trips from within the ranks of seventeen- and eighteen-year-old boys at Winchester College, the enlistment of the first of whom (Harry Gibson)
The second of these recruits was "a special friend of the first howas soon enlisted, and the planning of the campaign began". This was the seventeen-year-old George Mallory
George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s.
Born in Cheshire, Mallory became a student at Winchester ...
, a mathematics scholar at Winchester who later disappeared on the 1924 British Expedition to Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
. As Irving later remarked, "It was just chance that I took out to the Alps in 1904 a boy destined to become so famous on Everest." Much of Irving's fame derives from his being the person who introduced Mallory to mountaineering. Aside from Gibson and Mallory, who both went on the first trip in 1904, other members of the Winchester Ice Club were Guy Bullock
Guy Henry Bullock (23 July 1887 – 12 April 1956) was a British diplomat who is best known for his participation in the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition. As expedition mountaineers, he and George Mallory found a northern acc ...
(who reached Mount Everest's North Col in 1921) and Harry Tyndale.
According to Irving's address to the Alpine Club, entitled 'Five Years with Recruits', the Ice Club's series of controversial expeditions to climb some of the highest mountains in the Alps began in 1904, and peaks such as the Grand Combin
The Grand Combin is a mountain massif in the western Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais. At a height of the summit of ''Combin de Grafeneire'' is one of the highest peaks in the Alps and the second most prominent of the Pennine Alps. The Gran ...
, Dent Blanche
The Dent Blanche is a mountain in the Pennine Alps, lying in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At -high, it is one of the highest peaks in the Alps.
Naming
The original name was probably ''Dent d'Hérens'', the current name of the nearby D ...
, Aiguille du Blaitière, Bietschhorn, Aiguille de Bionnassay
The Aiguille de Bionnassay (elevation ) is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif of the Alps in France and Italy. It has been described as "one of the most attractive satellite peaks of Mont Blanc", and is located on its western side. The mounta ...
, Grunhorn, Mittaghorn, Aletschhorn
The Aletschhorn () is a mountain in the Alps in Switzerland, lying within the Jungfrau-Aletsch region, which has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The mountain shares part of its name with the Aletsch Glacier lying at its foot.
Th ...
, Monte Rosa
:
, other_name = Monte Rosa massif
, translation = Mount Rose
, photo = Dufourspitze (Monte Rosa) and Monte Rosa Glacier as seen from Gornergrat, Wallis, Switzerland, 2012 August.jpg
, photo_caption = Central Mon ...
and Mont Blanc were successfully ascended. Rock climbing trips were also undertaken to Snowdonia
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951.
Name and extent
It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...
, using the Pen-y-Gwryd
Pen-y-Gwryd is a pass at the head of Nantygwryd and Nant Cynnyd rivers close to the foot of Snowdon in Gwynedd, Wales.
The area is located at the junction of the A4086 from Capel Curig to Llanberis and Caernarfon and the A498 from Beddgele ...
hotel as a base, and snow craft was practised in the Scottish Highlands
The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...
in winter.
The feelings of the Alpine Club towards the leading of boys up potentially dangerous mountains were expressed in a 'Condemnation', in which Tom George Longstaff
Tom George Longstaff (15 January 1875 – 27 June 1964) was an English doctor, explorer and mountaineer, most famous for being the first person to climb a summit of over 7,000 metres in elevation, Trisul, in the India/Pakistan Himalayas in 1907. ...
stated that he "did not think that members would agree with him about the advisability of such expeditions". This was followed by 'A Disclaimer', published in the '' Alpine Journal'' for 1909 and signed by mountain climbers including Longstaff, Geoffrey Winthrop Young
Geoffrey Winthrop Young (25 October 1876 – 8 September 1958) was a British climber, poet and educator, and author of several notable books on mountaineering.
Young was born in Kensington, the middle son of Sir George Young, 3rd Baronet (see Y ...
, Claud Schuster
Claud Schuster, 1st Baron Schuster, (22 August 1869 – 28 June 1956) was a British barrister and civil servant noted for his long tenure as Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Office. Born to a Mancunian business family, Schuster wa ...
, W. P. Haskett Smith and D. W. Freshfield
Douglas William Freshfield (27 April 1845 – 9 February 1934) was a British lawyer, mountaineer and author, who edited the ''Alpine Journal ''from 1872 to 1880. He was an active member of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club and ...
, in which these members of the club, and nine others, ' esireto place on record that we disclaim responsibility for any encouragement which Mr. Irving's paper may give to expeditions undertaken after the manner therein described'. However, as Claire Engel wrote in 1971, "it seems that Irving's methods have been adopted by various organisations."
Irving continued to climb with Mallory after the latter had left Winchester; in 1911 Irving led Mallory and another of his ex-pupils, Harry Tyndale, on the third ascent of the Kuffner (or Frontier) ridge on Mont Maudit. According to Helmut Dumler, Mallory was "apparently prompted by the death of friends on the Western Front in 1916 o write
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
a highly emotional article of his ascent of this great climb"; this article was published as 'Mont Blanc from the Col du Géant by the Eastern Buttress of Mont Blanc' in the ''Alpine Journal''.
Irving's book ''Ten Great Mountains'' (1940) sets out the climbing history up to then of Snowdon
Snowdon () or (), is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (') in Gwynedd (historic ...
, Ben Nevis, Ushba
Ushba ( ka, უშბა) is one of the most notable peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. It is located in the Svaneti region of Georgia, just south of the border with the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. Although it does not rank in the 10 highe ...
, Mount Logan
Mount Logan () is the highest mountain in Canada and the second-highest peak in North America after Denali. The mountain was named after Sir William Edmond Logan, a Canadian geologist and founder of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). Mount ...
, Everest, Nanga Parbat, Kanchenjunga
Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third List of highest mountains on Earth, highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', wh ...
, the Matterhorn, Mount Cook
Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest.
Mount or Mounts may also refer to:
Places
* Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England
* Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...
and Mont Blanc.[
Irving kept up to date with mountaineering developments in the ]Greater Ranges
The Roof of the World or Top of the World is a metaphoric epithet or phrase used to describe the high region in the world, also known as High Asia. The term usually refers to the mountainous interior of Asia, including the Pamirs, the Himalayas, ...
, writing of the Muztagh Tower
Muztagh Tower ( ur, ), also: Mustagh Tower; ''Muztagh'': ice tower), is a mountain in the Baltoro Muztagh, part of the Karakoram range in Baltistan on the border of the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Re ...
(7,273 m) in the Karakorum that it was "Nature's last stronghold – probably the most inaccessible of all the great peaks, its immense precipices show no weakness in its defence".
In a pamphlet called ''The Mountains Shall Bring Peace'' (1947), Irving describes the benefits he has had from his own climbing and proposes greater participation in mountaineering as a way to achieve international brotherhood and peace.[
]
Books and articles by Irving
*'The Ligurian Alps in Spring', ''Alpine Journal'', August 1911
*'Une nuit d'avril ... à la Brèche de Roland et au Taillon', ''La Montagne'' (journal of the Club alpin français
Club may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises
...
), Sept–Oct 1929
*''The Romance of Mountaineering '', J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1935
*''La conquête de la montagne'', Paris, Payot (Bibliothèque géographique), 1936
*''The Mountain Way, an anthology in prose and verse, collected by R. L. G. Irving'', xxii + 656 pp., London, J. M. Dent, 1938; New York, Dutton, 1938[Neate, Jill, ''Mountaineering Literature: A Bibliography of Material Published in English'']
page 88
online at books.google.co.uk, accessed 14 July 2008.
*''The Alps'', London, B. T. Batsford, 1938; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940; revised editions, B. T. Batsford, 1942 and 1947
*''Ten Great Mountains'', J. M. Dent & Sons, 1940
*(As translator), ''My Caves'', from the French of Norbert Casteret
Norbert Casteret (19 August 1897 – 20 July 1987) was a famous French caver, adventurer and writer, and is one of the most recognisable names in caving worldwide. Following Édouard-Alfred Martel (the "father of modern speleology", although Cas ...
, London, J.M. Dent & Sons, 1947
*''The Mountains Shall Bring Peace'', iv + 47 pp., Oxford, Blackwell, 1947[
*(With Guido Rey), ''The Matterhorn'': Guido Rey's ''Il Monte Cervino'' was first published in English in 1907, in a translation from the Italian by J. E. C. Eaton; a revised edition, with two further chapters by R. L. G. Irving, was published in Oxford by Basil Blackwell, 1946, and reprinted in 1949
*(As translator), ''Cave Men New and Old'', from the French of Norbert Casteret, London, J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1951
*''A History of British Mountaineering'', B. T. Batsford, 1955
]
Selected quotations
*"There are routes up many peaks in the Alps, Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn being conspicuous examples, on which a solitary climber risks little more than a man who wanders alone on a wild Yorkshire moor." – R. L. G. Irving, from ''Alpine Journal'' (1909)
*"A mountain becomes great as a human personality does, by extending its influence over the thoughts, words and actions of mankind." – R. L. G. Irving, from ''Ten Great Mountains'', 1940
*"Mountains... by the interchange of what we have given them and they have given us, there is a part of our personality in them and of theirs in us that is indestructible." – R. L. G. Irving, from ''Alpine Journal'' (1937)[R. L. G. Irving, ''Alpine Journal'', Vol. XLIX (1937), p. 164.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irving, Robert Lock Graham
1877 births
1969 deaths
English mountain climbers
Historians of mountaineering
People educated at Winchester College
Alumni of New College, Oxford
People educated at Liverpool College