Ramblings of a Deltiologist

Following on from my last post about what mountaineers eat when they dine, here is a lovely thing I picked up that shows exactly where everyone sat at one particular Alpine Club dinner in 1910. This seating plan came from a scrapbook created by the late Sir Locock who was an Alpine Club member. His place is marked by the red finger. It could take me years to research everybody on this list, but here is a taster of the VIPs who held club positions. President: Hermann Woolley, Esq. He held this position for one more year after this dinner and died 10 years later in 1920 at 74 years of age. He climbed in the Alps, the Canadian Rockies and the Caucasus (1880-1902). He did a number of first ascents and discovered the Columbia Glacier in the Rockies. He had a mountain named after him in 1898  - Mount Woolley in Alberta. He also took some great photographs. The one here sold for £1000. Prof. J. Norman Collie A great friend of Hermann, Norman Collie, aged 51 was Vice-President and sat at t...

In 1921 the Pinnacle Club was founded by two ladies: Pat Kelly and Eleanor Winthrop Young (wife of Geoffrey...will tell you more about this chap later). Dorothy Pilley became the president of this society later on. Pat Kelly had a habit of climbing alone and sadly died in 1922 in Wales. I found this nice extract in a local newspaper: In 1922 women in England could climb mountains (many in trousers after hiding their skirts at the beginning of a climb) but they couldn't vote unless they were over 30. Dorothy Pilley in her book describes a funny experience she had while climbing in the Italian Alps. A man from a nearby army camp was camping up a mountain with Pilley, Richards and their Swiss friend to ensure they did not make off with some blankets the soldiers had lent them. Pilley explained to him that he was in safe hands by showing him her Ladies Alpine Club badge. He replied to this gesture by making the sign of the cross and muttering something. Pilley became quite angry with h...

A few weeks ago I drove for about 90 minutes to buy an Alpine Club menu from 1911. I am now the proud owner of this menu and a seating plan from another dinner (I will post the latter soon). This gentlemen's club was created in 1857 and was described as " a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which have successfully addressed themselves to attempts of the kind on loftier mountains. " ( The Nuttall Encyclopaedia 1907). Ivor Richards (see other posts) was a member and Dorothy Pilley (see other posts) was a member of the breakaway version for girls called The Ladies Alpine Club (more to come on this in the future). Anyway, I thought you might be interested in knowing what this group of mountain climbers consumed on December 12th 1911. I think they would have needed to go on a jolly long hike to burn off the calorie content of this supper!

This post has been updated! Click here for more... A very exciting thing happened today. I got my first postcard from two fellow deltiologists in Canada. I am so thrilled they unearthed this while moving some books and dusting old shelves. Any postcard written in another language is a challenge, but I was fortunate that my friends had included a very thorough translation. I am now most excited about receiving this, and so will start looking for old postcards to send fellow deltiologists who go to the trouble of sending me a card. This postcard has no stamp or postal mark, so dating it is not easy. The very first postcards had a plain side for the message and the other side with a stamp printed and the clear instructions: the address only to be written on this side! (1870-1895). By 1899 people could not only affix their own stamps but also write a little message on the picture side of the card. Postcards with a photograph on one side and space for a short message and the addre...