– Chapter One –

Home and School

We peered at the small plant nestling in the damp grass with a mixture of incredulity and horror. The curlews wheeled above and their melancholy cry echoed among the dark crags. It had been a good climb. The overhanging chimney had been a challenge but now the heather fire crackled and shortly there would be Lapsang tea and war time sandwiches. In the distance a golden plover called mournfully. An authoritative voice said: ‘Common sundew: traps insects by luring them to its leaves covered with sticky tentacles; secretes a protein-digesting enzyme which works on the insect before it is absorbed.’

We took note. This was Bentley Beetham, to whom drosera rotundifolia was no mystery and who always saw the potential for learning through challenging his young charges. En route to the climb the question: ‘Has anyone seen the lapwing’s nest?’ Of course not! We did not know what we were looking for until he pointed between his feet, and there, in a scrape lined with grass, lay four olive-green eggs with dark markings as the adult birds tumbled about our heads crying in alarm.

At the time we did not realise how much birds were part of Beetham’s life; how in his travels at home and abroad, he had observed, studied and written about them. Nor did we know that he had been a leading bird photographer in his younger days or, as we shall see, that it was his passion for birds which led him, ‘toad-like’, to a new passion for climbing, for the peace, the beauty and solitude of open countryside and for the challenges that mountaineering presented.

This was the man who in 1924 had been a member of the expedition which attempted to climb Mount Everest and, because of its tragic and enigmatic outcome, has fascinated historians of mountaineering ever since. His reputation as a mountaineer had led him to be regarded as one of the climbers most likely to reach the summit. In the event an attack of sciatica prevented him from participating in the assault on the mountain and his disappointment must have been great. However, when it was all over and the story was known, it was the ‘losers’ who were remembered. Did Mallory and Irvine conquer the summit? What was it that brought about their disappearance in the shrouds of mist?

Those who were left behind departed after awhile, saddened and even chastened by their loss and failure. Some left a legacy in their writing and reflected on the significance of what had happened. Others remained shadowy figures, melting into the background, resuming their careers without revealing much of themselves or the part they had played. Bentley Beetham was one of these. He returned to teaching at Barnard Castle School in County Durham. He nevertheless continued to increase his climbing reputation through expeditions to various parts of the world and, in later years, Bentley Beetham became renowned for opening up the hitherto unexplored crags of Borrowdale in the English Lake District. He did not overtly seek attention for himself but he nonetheless acquired an almost legendary reputation, whether on the mountains or with his pupils. And so it is surprising, as it appears, that no one has attempted to tell the story of Bentley Beetham or tried to unravel the complexities of this extraordinary man.

Some 40 years before the 1924 Everest expedition, Stanhope Road North, Darlington, County Durham might not have been regarded as the most fashionable of Victorian terraces. It had a north-facing outlook and lacked any morning sunshine. However, these spacious, genteel dwellings would have been regarded by middle class professionals of the time as attractive and desirable. The houses looked out onto a neatly arranged park, the focal point of which was its Victorian bandstand. A picture is painted of Sunday afternoon concerts, formal flower beds, promenading couples, smartly dressed, complete with bonnets, gloves, parasols and black top hats. Young ladies from the Darlington Training College for Mistresses would mingle in the crowd, bringing a touch of informality. Next door to the college, Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, founded in 1576, also made its contribution to the scene and the character of the neighbourhood.

Frances Elizabeth Beetham gave birth to her second child at number 95 Stanhope Road on 1 May 1886. She called him Bentley, which was her maiden name. There were no indications in the family background that he was destined for a career which would be in any way remarkable or unusual. His father, James Weighell Beetham, had been manager and director of the old Darlington and District Bank, but the bank had gone into liquidation in November 1884, two years before Bentley was born, and it became a part of the York City and County Bank.[1] The family, Frances and James and their two sons, John and Bentley Beetham, appear to have been Methodists, James Beetham being listed as associated with Bondgate Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Day and Sunday School in 1885. He was not to know his two young sons, to see their potential and to influence them perhaps with his own Victorian values and choice of careers, for sadly he died on 7 July 1890, aged 59. John was six and Bentley just four years old.

From then on, Frances Elizabeth had the responsibility of bringing up these two young boys by herself. Her husband left her £10,000 in his will, a not an inconsiderable sum in the 1890s (nearly £900,000 in today’s terms), and it was sufficient to provide an income which would allow her to live comfortably and provide for the education of her two young boys. John received private tuition when the time came for schooling, and at the age of 10 he was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. On leaving school he pursued a career in banking, in later years becoming manager of the Grey Street Branch of the Midland Bank in Newcastle.[2] Bentley, however, first attended Mr. Bowman’s Preparatory School in Darlington and then, in 1894 at the age of eight, he joined his brother at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School.[3]

Life in the Beetham household at this time must have been a little odd, as is recalled by one of Bentley Beetham’s former pupils, W. Pearce Chope, who visited Bentley in his retirement:

I once visited him … during (his retirement) and was entertained to friendly and forceful hospitality. We got on to talking about smoking. Like me, he had never got on well with a pipe and became hooked on cigarettes. I, for my part, had eventually packed them in; but BB was quick to cap that: ‘I gave up cigars when I was eight!’

His father had been a great cigar smoker and kept his supplies in some cupboards built into the chimney-piece of the smoke-room or library or whatever. The father died when Bentley was quite a young boy, and left a considerable store of cigars in the chimney-piece. Bentley didn’t like to see them wasted and set about using them up over a period of time until they were all finished. His mother was a soft and somewhat ineffective parent and the nearest she ever came to remonstration was to murmur: ‘Oh, Bentley, do you think it’s good for you?’ Being an attractive widow, she was courted by a certain gentleman who made it his business to ‘get in’ with his sweetheart’s darling boy and sought to treat him as his best mate. Thus, when going to have a smoke in Bentley’s presence, it seemed natural for him first to offer his cigar case to his little friend. The latter politely responded: ‘No thank you, I’ve given them up’.

It is difficult to imagine how circumstances must have changed in the Beetham household after the death of his father. It has to be wondered what the effect of growing up in a one-parent family, with a mother who was unable to exert a strong influence on her two boys, must have been. Particularly so when, in Bentley’s case, at the age of 13 in 1899 he became a boarder at what was then called the North Eastern County School at Barnard Castle. Was this recognition of his mother’s parental inadequacies or withdrawal of affection that, at such a formative stage in his young life, he yearned for? If this is how he perceived it, did it have an effect on his attitude towards women in later life and explain in part why he was apparently unable to form meaningful relationships with them? Whatever the reason, the County School was to act as surrogate parent and its influence on him, together with that of the environment in which it is located, was huge. Beetham pledged his loyalty to Barnard Castle School (as it became known) and ultimately he devoted his life and career there, first as a teacher, then housemaster and ultimately as second master of the school.

What was so special about the North Eastern County School that it should in its nurturing of one young boy develop in him such a strong sense of commitment? The concept of the County School Movement originated in the second half of the 19th century with the Reverend J.L. Brereton, rector of Little Massingham, Norfolk. The intention of this and the Woodard School Movement was to extend the availability of a public school education with a religious, though non-denominational, ethos, to the middle classes and in particular those with a commercial and agricultural background. In his formal opening address of the North Eastern County School in 1886 the Bishop of Durham spoke of its aims and of: ‘The advantages of the corporate life of a great school.’ He expressed the hope that ‘this school might form the means of placing a sound education within the reach of those whose parents were in the possession of a moderate income, together with those boys from the elementary schools who were desirous of a higher education.’ The school went on to flourish independently of the County School...