Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Hello,
You may have seen recently that two YOBs, Rob and James, became the two youngest men ever to climb Everest.
Recently I just found on the CHA website (what a mine of information that really is!!) that Ernest Giles (1835-1897) another OB, was a highly intrepid explorer and discovered more land than any other explorer in Australia.

I was wondering, anyone else know of any other exploring OBs? Is there something in the air in Horsham which inspires it, perhaps?!!

Thanks,
Zoë

Heh. It depends what you define as exploring. I havent climbed any mountains but I do love travelling alot....

We're supposed to have done a lot of that sort of thing in Australia. The late J E Morpurgo (Col B 1929-36, Governor & Almoner) wrote that, of a dozen Old Blues who appear in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, all but two were explorers. Unfortunately he mentioned only two of them by name, Ernest Giles and John Septimus Roe (CH 1807-13), the first Surveyor General of Western Australia. Another was Charles Tyers (CH c. 1820) who gave his name to various geographical features and was the first European to climb Mount Emu and Mount Buningyong. The only other one I can name is Giles's companion William Henry Tietkins who left CH in 1859.

Morpurgo says also that there were Old Blues travelling with Captain Cook, assisting his navigator William Wales (not an OB, but he went on to be Master of the Royal Mathematical School at CH from 1775 to 1798). He doesn't name them though.

CH has sometimes claimed that David Thompson, the great explorer of British Columbia, was an Old Blue. He wasn't: see page 283 of E H Pearce's Annals of Christ's Hospital, and the article by the late Andrew Allen (Ma A 1925-32) on page 127 of the Lent 1988 Blue. Another explorer in Canada, Roberts, who travelled with Captain Vancouver and gave his name to this and that, is said to have been at CH. Apparently there was an article about him in The Blue in 1937 or early 1938.

Then there's Edward Colborne Baber (CH c. 1860) who, Morpurgo says, added significantly to Western knowledge of the interior of China.

In the last century Phillip Osborne (CH c. 1920) explored parts of Abyssinia with Wilfred Thesiger.

Among the living, James Whelpton (Ma A 1979-87) gave his occupation as 'explorer' in Who's Blue 1997 but added no details apart from 'extensive travels in Asia and Middle East'.

Zoe Mitchell wrote:I was wondering, anyone else know of any other exploring OBs? Is there something in the air in Horsham which inspires it, perhaps?!!

the inspiration probably comes from the drive to get the hell away from CH. at a guess.

Then there was Dr R J S Kendrick (La A 1949-56) who, with others, attempted to sail a Chinese junk of ancient design (Han dynasty?) from Hong Kong to Mexico in about 1974, but had to abandon ship in mid-Pacific.

Pete Hayes (Maine B & Mid B 1967-?73) lost some toes in Alaska, says Howard Holdsworth on this page:
http://www.chforum.com/php/viewtopic.ph ... 118914473f

Sounds adventurous. What's the story?

I have nothing under my belt as yet, but I have been accepted onto an international crew of oarsmen in their attempt to row around the world without making landfall.

I will be doing the final leg across the Indian Ocean (7000 miles) in 2008. I just have the small matter of finding £20K for the exped first?!!!


for more info check out

http://www.rowextreme.com
or contact
joe@rowextreme.com