Obituary

“I’d do it all again”
J. Robert Files

One of the last links with the pre-war climbing scene was lost with the death on the 24th March last of Bob Files. He was a real hundred per cent climbing enthusiast. Tony Greenbank tells the tale of how, when they climbed Troutdale Pinnacle and topped out, Bob said, ‘Now we go down’ and he meant climb down, not walk. Bob climbed with Jerry Wright in Skye, he was mentioned in Wiight’s classic ‘Mountain Days in the Isle of Skye’, and in 1934 took part in the first ascent of the Direct Finish to C.B. under F.G Balcombe’s leadership.

He earned his living as a teacher and I have much reason to be grateful to him because he took some of us school boys to Lakeland in the summer holidays of 1945. We stayed at Youth Hostels and did a lot of fell walking and some climbing. My friend Jim Townley and I were taken up Napes Needle and Arrowhead Ridge on a cold August day.

When I saw him three or four years ago he was delighted to produce his diary entry for a climbing weekend we had in 1946. There was George Randall besides Jim, Bob and I and we did Gordon and Craig’s on Doe, Oliversons on Gimmer and some routes on Scout. That was when he made the remark I have quoted at the head of this tribute. He suffered a stroke in 1993 and sadly was never the same again. Bob’s wife, Muriel, who pre-deceased him was equally enthusiastic a mountaineer; they had no family.

Bill Todd