In Memoriam

John C. Appleyard
(1920—1978)

John Appleyard, a Life Member of the Club, died on the 4th December ’78, aged 82. He was born on the 27th December 1896 at Westwood, The Grove, Ilkley, Yorks. He left Ilkley at the age of one, and lived in Far Headingley, Leeds and later at Huby, near Leeds. In 1903 he moved to Hull where he lived until the First World War. He was educated at Hull Grammar School and on leaving school he entered the National Provincial Bank in Hull and was there from 1913 to 1920. He served in the 26th and 10th Royal Fusiliers in England and with the 12th Middlesex, 18th Division in France. There he was declared unfit for the line and served as Quarter Master Sergeant in various native labour corps. He was previously managing an army laundry in Abbeville and was discharged from the army early in 1919. Afterwards he left the National Provincial Bank and became a secretary for a year when he had a breakdown and was advised to live in the country. He then came to the Misses Ransome, Emlin Hall at Torver, Coniston on the 2nd September 1920 and lived with them until he was married to Evelyn Florence Harland at Hawkshead Parish Church on the 28th August 1926.

John Appleyard was an accomplished climber but after leaving Yorkshire he became active with the Fell & Rock Climbing Club and held several offices with the Fell & Rock, viz. Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Vice President, President and was made an Honorary Member in 1953 for services rendered. He was also a founder Member of the Coniston Mountain Rescue Team.

E.C.D.

Edward Hugh Croft
(1914-1978)

Edward Hugh Croft, who died on 15th January, 1978, was elected to membership in 1914 and had been a member of the Club longer than any other living member.

Interested in geology as a young man, his election followed a chance encounter with Arthur Horn, then secretary of the Club, in Goyden Pot, but he attended only one Meet before the Great War broke out. After the war he was living in Manchester, subsequently moving to the Midlands and although he never attended another Meet he much enjoyed receiving the Club circulars and reading the various activities of members.

S.M.

Albert Humphreys
(1920—1979)

Albert Humphreys died on February 5th, 1979, at the age of 92 years. He was born on the 9th April, 1886, in Manchester, the fourth of a family of five boys. Elected member in 1920, he was Vice-President in 1937-46 and was our oldest member.

Albert was a man of wide interests, with a great capacity for comradeship, a zest for life and an infectious sense of humour. He will be missed, not only in the Y.R.C. but in many other spheres. He was a very loyal member of our Club and always retained his interest in its activities. He was too frail to attend the 1978 dinner, but otherwise had an almost unbroken record of attendance, and was delighted to receive the signed menu card sent to him on that occasion.

It is obvious from reading his diaries, that his interest in the hills started before the First World War, and there are accounts of walking tours in the Pennines and the Lake District, but soon there are references to caves and to potholing—for example, Belgium in 1912, and by 1917 he was engaged in cave photography. Shortly after the end of the 1914-18 war his interest had become so great that he and his eldest brother, Harry, built a hut, made out of a surplus War Office Mobile Workshop at Rowter Farm, Castleton, to house their potholing gear, and serve as a centre for their potholing activities. Blackburn Holden, a Y.R.C. member, and subsequently the first President of the C.P.C., another keen potholer and cave photographer, was a friend and also had his own hut at Rowter. A menu card survives, undated, but probably from this lighter-hearted period, of the A.A.O.L.—the Ancient Antediluvian Order of Lumpyeads. ‘Lumpyeads’ was an appellation bestowed on them by a countryman who saw them pulling their heavy potholing tackle by sled over the Yorkshire moors. He and Harold Armstrong were responsible, in 1921, for the designing and making of the winch, constructed from all sorts of improbable spares, which proved such a success in the Gaping Gill meets of that period.

Albert visited the Alps on a number of occasions, climbing in Switzerland, Austria and Bavaria, usually accompanied by his niece, Grace Humphreys. He was an inveterate traveller, even in his old age, and somehow always seemed to find something unusual to do—a visit, for example, to the summit of a not very quiescent Etna, or to a stream in Cephalonica, whose waters flow inland from the sea, to disappear down a swallow hole. In 1925 he visited the White Sea and’ Norway, in a trawler, and in his eighties undertook a safari type holiday in East Africa, and some bell diving in the Caribbean. He had other outdoor interests. He was a first class rifle shot, with two golds and five bronzes to his credit, and in 1912 became President of Lyd-gate Rifle Club. He enjoyed fly fishing and was a good shot on a grouse moor.

Above all, however, he was a true scientist, with an enquiring mind and wide interests that embraced both physical and biological subjects. He was President of the Oldham Microscopical Society and was in 1972 the oldest member of the United Field Naturalists Society at the time of the Centenary of that club. He was interested in geology and became a member of the Yorkshire Geological Society and attended a number of their lectures and field meetings. During the Second World War, whilst on Fire Duty at the family engineering works in Oldham, bored by inactivity, he bought a four-inch refracting telescope and became a keen amateur astronomer.

He played a big part in the development of the family engineering firm, started by the two eldest brothers. This was at first a minute enterprise, carried out in the cellar of the family home and later expanded to the basement of a small chapel, before moving to Oldham. At first they made small electrically powered toys, charged batteries and installed electric wiring, including that of Stretford Town Hall. After the move to Oldham they made dynamos and finally magnetic chucks. Some of the toys and one of their first dynamos can be seen in the North West Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

Members, however, will remember him for his courtesy and kindliness and his great sense of humour. Quiet and unruffled, he nevertheless had a capacity for quick and decisive action when necessary, as when Jack Woodman was taken suddenly and seriously ill during a Gaping Gill meet; and, on a lighter note, when, arriving at Southampton, from abroad, he found a rail strike in progress and immediately hailed a taxi, ordering it to proceed to Uppermill, the Yorkshire village where he lived.

Jack Woodman writes that ‘he was kindly and thoughtful and, like all the seniors, made sure that no undue risks were taken and checked all knots and belays, etc. He gave one confidence and had a fine sense of humour. He was a great potholer, a man of wide experience on the hills and leaves many happy memories.’

Our condolences are extended to his niece, Grace, and the other members of his family.

W.P.B.S.

Douglas P. Penfold
(1960—1977)

By the sudden death of Doug Penfold on 27th October 1977 at the age of 57 the Club lost one of its most loyal and devoted members. He died at Blea Tarn in Langdale at the end of a day in the mountains with his daughter, Julia.

A kindred club was on hand and we are indebted to them for their assistance.

Doug was a man with many interests, reserved about his achievements, who had met adversity in many forms. Those who knew him well will remember him for his strength and determination to recover from repeated setbacks to the pursuit of his interests. Lesser men would have retired.

Doug was bom in Birmingham and moved to Leeds around 1957 and I have no doubt Yorkshire benefited from his move. All his life he was a keen hockey player/referee/selector. He held, for many years, high offices in the administration of Yorkshire County Hockey. In the year he died he realised his greatest ambition when he was elected President of the Yorkshire Hockey Club.

He had climbed extensively before joining the YRC in 1960, having served his apprenticeship on the classic routes of Almscliff and Cow and Calf. A very relaxed rock climber and popular companion I remember well a fine summer day on Troutdale Pinnacle. Upon finishing the last pitch I looked down to isee him stretched out on the pinnacle, feet crossed, hands behind his head, thinking, he said, what a grand day it was.

My first encounter with Doug was a YRC meet en route to the Alps. His first visit. Another ambition achieved. The long drive in an open car followed by the long haul up the Loetchental took its toll and he was unable to climb on the first day. Upon our return to the hut he had recovered and against all sense set out with David Smith and me to climb a ridge of the Mittoghorn. Soft snow prevented great progress but we reached an unnamed pinnacle which from that day was known as Pic Penfold.

W.A.L.

John Williamson
(1931—1979)

A Yorkshireman from Ben Rhydding, Jack joined the Club in 1931 and in the early days of his membership potholed with Roberts, Yates, Hilton, Marshall and Fred Booth, before going to live in Galloway. During the war he served in the RAF.

As he himself said, he had never stood on top of an Alpine peak but his membership of the Club meant a great deal to him and he much appreciated his election as Vice-President in 1976-78. In recent years his kindness and willingness to do all kinds of jobs very well, but quietly, was a part of his character and meant a lot to his friends. He knew the companionship of firelighting, cooking and washing up on Meets, especially on the Long Walks, but it was all done without fuss. It was typical of his generous and kindly disposition and his love of his fellows made him a delightful companion.

He showed the greatest courage and fortitude during his last illness, and to us remain the happiest memories of a good Christian, of his charm and happy disposition, of his modesty and tolerance, and of one who by his life and example, left the world better than he found it.

E.J.W.