The life o' Reilly

Courtesy: Alpine Club

 In the Summer of 1864, Edward Whymper, the doyen of British Alpinism during its Golden Age, was climbing in the Mont Blanc area, making a number of 'First Ascents'.  His climbing partner was Anthony Miles William Adams Reilly, who hailed from Belmont House in Ledestown, just outside Mullingar in Co Westmeath.  Together they decided to continue the season in Switzerland by climbing the Matterhorn by the Hörnli Ridge.  However, Whymper was required to return to London on urgent business so the climb was not attempted.  As he says in Scrambles amongst the Alps "... if we had not been obliged to part, the mountain would, doubtless, have been ascended in 1864."  Whymper returned to Zermatt in 1865 and by the same route he succeeded in making the first ascent of this iconic mountain.  Such are the 'might have beens' of mountaineering.

With such a surname it might be expected that Reilly had Cavan connections.  Indeed, his great-grandfather was Thomas O'Reilly of Roebuck, Co Cavan.  Over a few generations the O' was lost, the Adams was gained, along with property in Westmeath and Cavan.  Anthony was known to most as, simply, Adams Reilly.

Little is recorded of his early years in Mullingar.  He was educated in Rugby school, where he was sent, aged 12, on the death of his father in 1848 and at Brasenose College, Oxford.  There, he came under the influence of George Barnard, the Drawing Master and later a member of the Alpine Club, and probably read Travels through the Alps of Savoy (by J D Forbes).  He later acknowledged that it was Forbes' book that first aroused his interest in the Alps.

1861 was his first substantial season of Alpine climbing - with Leslie Stephen he made the second attempt on the East arête of Lyskamm, climbed Monte Rosa and Mt Blanc (twice, by different routes), all of which helped him gain membership of the Alpine Club in March 1862.  Later that year when he was back again in the Mt Blanc region he was struck by the deficiencies in the maps being used.  Not alone were the heights of peaks and extent of glaciers inaccurate but some non-existent summits and ridges were shown.  He decided to remedy the situation himself by carrying out a survey of the Mt Blanc massif himself.  He was encouraged in this by meeting with J.D. Forbes whose book had inspired his early interest in the mountains, in early 1863.  Through Forbes' persuasion he decided to undertake a thorough survey of the Mont Blanc chain the following year.

Edward Whymper saw Reilly as 'a man of wonderful determination and perseverance' who might make a suitable companion for renewed attacks on the Matterhorn.  The invitation was issued and gladly accepted by Reilly, but only on condition that  Whymper would assist with the revision survey.  Thus it transpired that they were climbing together in July of 1864 in the Mont Blanc area making a number of first ascents (Mont Dolent, Aiguille de Trélatéte, Aig d'Argentière).  The survey was completed, the map published by the Alpine Club in 1865.  He had assisted the French surveyors in their work and they subsequently named a number of mountain features near Chamonix in his honour ( Aiguille Adams-Reilly, Col Adams Reilly).

He was well liked by his climbing colleagues and locally in the Alps.  At Chamonix "almost every man, woman and child...had a pleasant smile for him and a 'bon soir' M. Reilly".  He lived for some years around 1870 in Mullingar and difficulties in Ireland troubled and affected him so that in 1881 he determined "to dwell amongst his own people" and he moved to Delgany, Co Wicklow but suffered from ill health.  He died in April 1885, the result of a stroke and is buried near Nenagh in Co Tippersary where his Alpine Club friends arranged the erection of an impressively carved Celtic cross in white marble to mark his grave.  C.E Mathews, who attended the burial, paid moving tribute to his dear friend and climbing partner - "...I never once heard him say anything to anyone's disparagement or pass an unjust judgement upon a single human being.  What wonder that there should be so many who loved him so well and who miss him so sorely?...one of the sweetest souls ever given to the sons of men; but memory of his friendship remains behind a pure, a sacred, and priceless possession".

A R's Mt Blanc map detail.   Alpine Club

From Whymper's 'Scrambles'

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See Journal of IMEHS Vol 2, 2002 for more details of Anthony Adams Reilly

at:  Here

and In search of Peaks, Passes and Glaciers, by Frank Nugent, Collins Press, 2013.