John Stevenson Lyle

 

Very little is know about John Stevenson Lyle.  He was born in 1849 or '50, the son of Samual Lyle of The Oaks, Londonderry.  He attended Trinity College, Dublin and was a friend there of W.S. Green and graduated BA in 1871.  Along with Henry Swanzy and  while he and Green were still students the three visited the Alps (1870) and climbed Monte Rosa.

After graduating (1871) he climbed the Matterhorn and in 1872 the New Weisstor and the Dom.  These were his qualifying climbs for Alpine Club membership, of which he remained a member only until 1875.

Taking Holy Orders in 1872 he remained a curate in England until 1876 when he went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as a missionery in Matara.  His work there was the subject of a question in the Westminster Parliament; he joined the Roman Catholic Church soon after 1885 and he returned to Britain as a priest in Peebles and Edinburgh.

There is no record of any mountain activity in either Sri Lanka or Scotland and he died in 1919.

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Gerald Fitzgerald

 In the early years of the Alpine Club (founded in 1857) its membership consisted, by and large, of upper class professionals.  The law, religion, medicine and business provided the majority of members.      Gerald Fitzgerald was one such Irish member of the AC who reached the apogee of the legal profession.

John David, Gerald's father was also a prominent member of the legal profession in Ireland - a catholic, he was liberal in politics and became independent liberal MP for Ennis, Co. Clare (1852–60).  He presided over a number of important cases including the trial of the Fenian leaders (1865) and of Charles Stewart Parnell  and thirteen others for conspiracy to encourage tenant farmers to avoid paying rent. (see DIB for more details).

Aig du Telefre
(Summit Post)

Gerald was the third son of Rose Donohoe, a Dublin distillers's daughter and the father's first wife. There were ten siblings with the second wife.  Little detail is available on his early life and education but he graduated (BA) from Trinity in 1869, was called to the bar in 1871 and was county court judge for Sligo, Roscommon, Longford, Meath, Westmeath and King's Co (Offaly).

He joined the Alpine Club in 1876 and is recorded climbing the Matterhorn in 1877 with his last recorded climb in 1911.  Some of his early climbs were with F.J. Cullinan - col de Miage, Aiguille du Midi and 1st ascent of Aig du Telefre.

From 1885 he climbed frequently with Sir William Edward Davidson, another, British, 'legal eagle', with whom he made a number of ground breaking climbs.

Alpine Club

In 1906 (Jan 26th) he attended the Alpine Club's dinner

that was held by the University Club, St Stephen's Green, in Dublin, inviting its fellow 'Alpinists' to welcome the Right Hon. James Bryce (ex President of the AC) to Ireland.

It might be noted the number of Trinity graduates who undertook mountaineering while they were students or soon after graduating.  Their financial situation is likely to have been a factor but maybe, also, some aspect of their courses or the people with whom they came in contact.

Gerald died in 1913 after a distinguished legal career and a substantial range of mountaineering achievements.

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