Irish in the Himalayas

 The British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947 and the term conceals numbers of Irish people. Patrick O’Leary in his ‘Servants of the Empire, the Irish in the Punjab 1881-1921’, details the contribution made by many Irish in that region of India. 

     The influence on Indian history of Irish-born administrators and soldiers was quite remarkable. In the mid-eighteenth century, French influence ended  in a battle in which both sides were led by Irish generals (the French side included elements of the Irish Brigade). During the 1890s seven of the eight  Indian provinces were ruled by Irish pro-consuls while at about this time three Commanders-in-Chief  in    India were Irish-born and another claimed to be. Tipperary-man Michael O’Dwyer was the administrator ultimately responsible for the infamous Amritsar Massacre. The many Irish doctors in the Indian Medical Service had a profound effect on research into the treatment of tropical diseases. ( Dr. P.O'Leary)

It is likely that some of these administrators spent their leave by travelling or venturing from various parts of India into the high regions of the Himalayas as mountaineers. From the state of Himachal Pradesh (formerly part of Punjab) this certainly happened. 

Bruce. Wikipedia

R.I Bruce (from Co Cork), on leave from the NW Frontier trekked in the mid 1870s over Hampta Pass, Parang La (5,578m) and Rohtang Pass.

 Arthur Banon (from Offaly) left his regiment, the Munster Fusiliers, to settle in Kullu and his descendants were facilitators to a modern generation of Irish mountaineers.

 Louis Dane (family from Co Fermanagh), made the first crossing of the Pin Parbati Pass (5,400m).

See: To wander at will and free of charge. The Irish in Himachal Pradesh. Journal of the Irish Mountaineering and Exploration Historical Society. Vol 3. Dublin 2012 (P.O' Leary) 

Kelly. Wikipedia

Colonel James Kelly and Lieutenant Cosmo Stewert took a regiment of Punjab Pioneers over the Shandur Pass (3,700m) in 1895 in the relief of Chitral; a military operation but a feat of mountain travel.

[Keay, John. The Gilgit Game. 1979 London pp 253]. 

This whole area of the Irish in British India offers further scope for detailed investigation.

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The Irish and Everest

 Mount Everest (known locally as Sagarmāthā in Nepal and Qomolangma  in Tibet) is Earth's highest

Everest from Rongbuk Glacier (1921)

 mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at its summit. Its height was most recently measured in 2020 by Chinese and Nepali authorities as 8,848.86 m (29,031 ft 8+1⁄2 in).  (Wikipedia).

The British geographic survey of 1849 attempted to preserve local names when possible (e.g., Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri). However, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India, claimed that he could not find a commonly used local name, Waugh argued that – because there were many local names – it would be difficult to favour one name over all others; he therefore decided that Peak XV should be named after British surveyor Sir George Everest, his predecessor as Surveyor General of India. Everest himself opposed the honour.

Everest (Wikipedia)

He had visited Ireland in 1829 and inspected the 'Colby Bar' as used in the Survey of Ireland for baseliine measurement and its possible suitability in the Survey of India. (A neice, Mary, lived in Cork from 1855 to '64 as wife of  George Boole, professoor of mathematics at Queen's College - now UCC).  In 1852, stationed at the survey headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak.

The British expedition of 1921 was the first to explore the possibility of climbing Mt Everest.  Charles Kenneth Howard Bury was leader of the expedition and the surveyor was  a Canadian, Edward Oliver Wheeler.  On the third British Expedition, in 1924, Richard Hingston from Cork, was the medical officer.

The first Irish attempt on Everest was in 1993 and members were from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Irish party in 1993 consisted of eight climbers: Dawson Stelfox, (leader); Frank Nugent (deputy leader); Dermot Somers, Robbie Fenlon, Mike Barry, Richard O'Neill Dean, Mick Murphy and Tony Burke. This was the first Irish attempt on Everest and members were from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The trip was supported by the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (MCI), the Sports Councils in Dublin and Belfast and financed by Irish companies and fund raising events.

Camp at Lakhpa La (1921)

(Some more details Here)

Some Irish Stats on Everest: (up to 2024).

– Everest has been climbed 76 times by 59 Irish climbers (9 women, 50 men) since the first Irish success in 1993.

– The geographic split of successful summits is 31 Northern Ireland, 41 Republic of Ireland and 4 Irish Diaspora.

– Irish success rate on Everest is 52%, while there have been four Irish fatalities (2005, 2011 & two in 2019).

– The first Irish climber to reach the summit of Everest was Dawson Stelfox from Antrim in 1993.

– The 1993 summit by Dawson Stelfox was the first North side ascent by a climber from Britain or Ireland.

– Noel Hanna (Co. Down) has 10 Everest summits – Noel died on Annapurna in 2023.

– Robert Smith (Co. Tyrone) has 7 Everest summits – Robert is an accomplished mountain guide.

– Pat Falvey & Lynne Hanna have 2 Everest summits each – once from each side (Nepal & Tibet).

– Linda Blakely (Armagh) in 2018 & Robert Smith (Tyrone) in 2019 summitted Everest & Lhotse within 24 hours.

– Everest & Lhotse by Linda Blakeley in 2018 was the first ‘same season double’ by a climber from Britain or Ireland.

– The youngest Irish citizen to summit is Anselm Murphy (24). Youngest Irish born to summit is Rob Mortell (26).

– The oldest Irish citizen to reach the summit of Everest was Martin Byrne from Offaly (58) in 2012.

– Four Irish born climbers died on Everest – Sean Egan (2005), John Delaney (2011), Seamus Lawless (2019) & Kevin Hynes (2019).

– Noel & Lynne Hanna hold the world record for the 1st married couple to summit together from both sides (2009 & 2016).

– Edmund Hillary’s grandmother came from Clondra in Longford. His other grandparents were from Yorkshire in England.

See Here for more info.

Ireland and the Greater Ranges - (Early 20th C)

] Towards the end of the 19th century European mountaineers began to consider the world's Greater Ranges (Himalayas, Andes, Caucuses) as destinations for their craft.  Initial European activity in the Himalayas largely involved the British East India Company mapping the region for military and strategic reasons in the Survey of India         

Irish people, as part of the British Raj, carried out a variety of mountain activities during the second half of the century (see here) in India. 

The climbs of the British climber W.W. Graham in 1883 are often considered the first true mountaineering exploits in the Himalayas.

 An early attempt on a major peak was made by Albert F. Mummery who died in 1895 while attempting Nanga Parbat.

 Sir Martin Conway led an expedition to the Karakoram in the  Himalayas in 1892/3.  The ensuing book ( Climbing and Exploration in the Karakoram Himalaya  was illustrated by the Irish artist A. D. Mc Cormick.  He later accompanied Clinton T. Dent to Central Caucasus.

The higher of the two summits of Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus was first climbed in 1874 by a British expedition led by F. Crauford Grove.

The Survey of India, through the Great Trigonometrical Survey, first identified Mount Everest (then Peak XV) as the world's highest mountain in the 1850s, thanks to the work of Indian mathematician Radhanath Sikhdar, with final height confirmation coming from later surveys, leading to its naming in 1865 after former Surveyor General George Everest, despite local names like Chomolungma (Tibetan) and Sagarmatha (Nepali) existing. 

Interest in climbing the world's highest mountain culminated, in 1921, with the British Reconnaisance Expedition.

Bury (top) Wheeler (below)

This expedition was led by Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury from Mullingar, Ireland.

Also on this expedition was Edward Oliver Wheeler, a Canadian, whose father was born in Kilkenny, Ireland an whose mother (Clara) was the daughter of John Macoun, born in Maheralin, Co Down.

The subsequant 1924 Everest attempt saw the disapearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine during their summit attempt, which was witnessed by Richard Hingston, the medical officer of the expedition. Born in London, from about age eight spent most of his life and was educated in Cork.               See Jim Murphy's 'Passage to Everest & Beyond'  for greater details and Vol 5 of IMEHS Journal.

In 1925 the 4th ascent of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas, was achieved by

Mervyn Ryan,

Aconcagua and Mervyn Ryan

Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the world outside the Himalayas. It was climbed on the 5^th of February 1925 by a party that included Mervyn Frederick Ryan.

Aconcagua.  Wikipedia CC A. Backer.  

The surname Ryan is closely linked with Tipperary and is unlikely to be thought of as being associated with Alpine climbing achievements. However, Valentine Ryan was an outstanding Alpinist in the early years of the twentieth century, making numerous first ascents and is remembered by the 'Ryan-Lochmatter' route on the Aiguille du Plan. His brother, Lionel, had the first winter ascent of the Weisshorn.

Almost totally forgotten is their cousin, Mervyn, of the same family, the Ryans of Inch (near Thurles). Mervyn was born in Malta in December 1883. This came about because his parents, Thomasine (Shaw) and Major Charles Ryan, British Army, were traveling home - from a posting in India, or the Anglo/Egyptian War - when the pregnancy intervened. Some time was spent in India – his mother was the daughter of the CO of the Royal Irish Regiment there. He was educated, as was his father, at Stonyhurst College, the Jesuit school in

Lancashire, from 1898 to 1902, where he excelled academically, captained the college football eleven and was involved in cricket and athletics.

Stonyhurst football

After that he qualified as an engineer at University College Nottingham, gained experience with railways in the USA and had a varied career in railways and munitions until 1919 when he was elected as president of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers and was appointed as Chief Mechanical Engineer to the Central Argentine Railway.

 

It may have been this appointment, or possibly the accounts of his cousins' Alpine exploits, that brought the mountains to his attention, for their followed five consecutive seasons of climbing in the Andes. In 1922, after a solo climb of Cerre Penitentes (4,440m) in Argentina, he made his only visit to the Alps, went on the Gorner Glacier and climbed Monte Rosa, the Rothorn, Gabelhorn and Wellenkuppe with Pollinger as guide.

The Alpine experience may have fired his enthusiasm, for the following

Aconcagua Party

 few years saw him make unsuccessful and guideless attempts of Almacenes (4,926m), Tolosa (5,432m), and Aconcagua (6,961m). The experience gained was beneficial for in 1925, along with climbing partners, Clayton, Cochrane and Mc Donald, he reached the summits of all three, culminating on 5^th February with the ascent of Aconcagua. This is considered the fourth ascent of the mountain and the second 'completely British' ascent.

He joined the Alpine Club in 1926, proposed by Sidney Young, an English businessman in Argentina. As linguistic qualifications he listed Hindustani with Spanish and school French, an indication of time spent in India. There seems to have been no climbing afterwards but he went on in his career to survey railways in India and Thailand.

Puenta del Inca

The experience of climbing in the Andes was likely to have been significant, for at his own request, he was to be buried at Puenta del Inca, the starting point of his summit attempt on Aconcagua. For his retirement he had intended to settle down in Ireland, had bought an estate here, but his final illness prevented this and he died in Argentina in 1952.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Desmond Ryan of Edinburgh for use of the photographs; Institution of Mechanical Engineers for the portrait; Stonyhurst College; Emma Mc Donald of the Alpine Club, London, and its archive that is so easily accessible on its website (http://www.alpine-club.org.uk);

 

Richard Hingston

Dr Richard GW Hingston, FZS, FRES, FLS, FRGS (1887-1966) was an Irish physician, explorer and naturalist who worked in India with the Indian Medical Service. He attended Cork Grammar School and Merchants' Taylor School, London. Hingston qualified in the Medical School of Queen's College, Cork (now University College Cork) in 1910, where he passed his Final with First Class Honours.

On graduation Hingston entered the Indian Medical Service and retired from it in 1927 with the rank of Major. In 1913 he was naturalist to the Indo-Russian Pamir Expedition, a triangulation project in the Himalayas, mapping the region between India and Russia where he carried out experiments on the effects of high altitude on the human body on behalf of the RAF.  From 1914-1918 he served in the British Forces and was twice mentioned in despatches. He was awarded the MC. From the end of the war until 1924 he commanded military hospitals. In 1924 he acted as Medical Officer and Naturalist to the Mt Everest expedition.  This was the second mountaineering expedition with the express aim of making the first ascent of Mount Everest.

Everest '24 Team. Hingston - back row 2nd.

Richard Hingston was an analytical and dedicated diarist and even during the most trying periods of the Everest expedition he kept a record of events. It is from this diary that the following brief extracts have been taken:

4th June 1924: Norton and Somerville have extablished Camp VI at a height of 27,000 feet... Mallory and Irvine left camp today.  They intend to make an oxygen attempt...

5th June 1924: He (Somerville) and Norton had reached an altitude of 28,000 feet.  Norton had to be left at Camp IV.  He suffered badly ffrom snow blindness...Mallory and Irvine are now making an attempt. And this will probably be the last.

6th June 1924:  I set off at 6am...for Camp IV on an ice ridge at 23,000 feet.... The whole ascent was very wonderful, being practically a climb up a wall of ice about 2,000 feet in height...I had a job of work before me, to get a blind man down the Col...I was glad to get down...and finish the job without injury to anyone...

7th June 1924:...there is no news of Mallory and Irvine. Personally, I have not much hope of their success...

8th June 1924: Eyes again glued to the mountain. There is just a chance of Mallory and Irvine getting to the summit.... There is no sign of their having returned yet to Camp IV.

9th June 1924: Not a sign of Mallory and Irvine...they should have been at Camp IV ths morning, but there is no tracce of them as yet...

10 th June 1924: There can be no doubt - the worst has happened.  Not a sign of Mallory and Irvine.  They must have slipped near the summit and fallen down the face of the mountain.

After Everest he undertook a number of other expeditions. From 1925-1927 he was Surgeon Naturalist in the Indian Marine Survey. In 1928 he was second in command of the Oxford University Expedition to Greenland while in 1929 he was organiser and leader of the Oxford University Expedition to British Guyana. In 1930 he conducted a mission to Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Tanganyika and Uganda in order to investigate methods of preserving the indigenous fauna.  In 1939 he was recalled to military duty in India and remained there until 1946.

After World War II Hingston retired to his home in Passage West, County Cork.

For further details of his Mt Everest  experience see Jim Murphy "Passage to Everest and Beyond" and Mountaineering Ireland (IMEHS Journal Vol 5).

  For accounts of some of his other expeditions see Hingston Collection at UCC.