jamiemcginlay
Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 930 Location: Glasgow
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Posted: Fri Nov 02, 2007 8:30 pm Post subject: Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut, Ben Nevis |
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The Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut is located on Ben Nevis. Before the hut was built there was no shelter available for walkers and climbers in an emergency and many died unnecessarily of exposure following accidents. The parents of Charles Inglis Clark thought that providing such a shelter was the best way to commemorate their son, which it has done ever since.
The following article on Mrs. Clark's publication of a book of her photography appeared in The Scots Magazine, Volume 31, No.1, April 1939 9pp 79-80)
Mrs. Clark was the founder of the first Women’s Climbing Club in Scotland, and was the first woman to climb the Crowberry Ridge (Abraham’s route). It is just ten years ago this month that the hut donated by Mrs. Clark and her husband in memory of their son, Charles Inglis Clark, who was killed in the War, was opened on Ben Nevis. Mrs. Clark writes about the hut as follows:
“ The site chosen for this hut was in the Allt a Mhuillin Glen in Coire Leis, Ben Nevis, where it reaches an altitude of 2000 feet, and commands a view of various rocky climbs where once in his gallant young strength he [Charles] had so greatly adventured…In the erection of the Charles Inglis Clark Memorial Hut there were many difficulties to be overcome, and it took two years to complete it. Transport was a serious problem. Everything had to be carried up 2000 feet on pony-back, with the result that the ton of anthracite, say, which would have cost five pounds at Fort William, had risen to twenty-five pounds by the time it reached its destination. The double walls of the Hut are very solid and constructed of local stone, and the interior is lined throughout with wood.
The first load was carried up in May 1928, and by the month of June the foundations of massive stone had been laid, and most of the wood required, piled ready for use. It was a thrilling experience for us when we paid our first visit there and saw the rising walls; and a more thrilling one still when the formal Opening Day arrived, and it stood staunch and strong before us, and ready to the last detail to fill the beneficent role for which it was destined. It measures 26 feet by 24 feet and its walls are two and a half feet thick. From the first it has been fully equipped for habitation. There are eight beds with teak bunks, spring mattresses and good bedding. There is, of course, a cooking stove, and many accessories have been added by members of the S.M.C. [Scottish Mountaineering Club]. The rules regarding its use are rigorously observed, and it has been a great boon to mountaineers.”
CWGC ENTRY:
Name: CLARK, CHARLES INGLIS
Initials: C I
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Captain
Regiment/Service: Army Service Corps
Unit Text: 976th M.T. Coy.
Age: 29
Date of Death: 06/03/1918
Additional information: Son of Dr. and Mrs. Inglis Clark; husband of Mary M. Inglis Clark, of 1, Bruntsfield Gardens, Edinburgh. Born in Edinburgh.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: XVI. K. 7.
Cemetery: BAGHDAD (NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY
These photographs were taken in the middle of a heat wave in July...and it was freezing even then!
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