William Woodman Graham

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William Woodman Graham by unknown photographer

William Woodman Graham (1859 – fl. 1932) was a British mountaineer who led the first pure mountaineering expedition to the Himalayas and may have set a world altitude record on Kabru.[1] Motivated by adventure rather than a desire for fame, he had little interest in publicising his climbs, and as a result relatively little is known about his life and achievements.

Early life

Graham was born in the summer of 1859 in

Alpine Club was rejected for reasons which are unclear, but the size of the majority against him suggests that he had made influential enemies.[8]

Himalayan expedition

In 1883, shortly after he had qualified as a

Kanchenjunga, but he was forced to return to Darjeeling by the cold weather and the fact that a porter had accidentally burned his boots.[8]

By then, Imboden had contracted fever and opted to go home. Once in Darjeeling, Graham contacted the

Nanda Devi Sanctuary they turned their attention towards Dunagiri, where Graham claimed to have reached a height of around 22,700 ft (6,920 m) before being forced to retreat by bad weather.[11]

Graham and his companions next attempted a nearby peak, which they believed was the one marked on the map as A21, now known as Changabang. They made an ascent by the West Ridge, which Graham described as "a fair climb, but [one that] presented no great difficulties."[12] Modern observers, however, agree that whatever mountain Graham climbed it was not Changabang, which from the west presents a sheer wall which was not climbed until 1976, and certainly not the easy ridge that Graham described.[13] It is more likely that he was on the wrong mountain; possibly a subsidiary summit on the southern ridge of Dunagiri.[14]

Graham's confusion was partly due to the poor quality of the maps of the area, and on his return to civilisation he was critical of the

Swiss Army, whom he credited with the finest cartographic work in the world at the time. The criticism was not well received by the Survey, and it may have made Graham more enemies to cast doubt on his accomplishments.[13]

Kabru, which Graham claimed to have climbed.

After the Garhwal trip, Graham and his companions returned to the Kanchenjunga area for the climax of their campaign; an attempt on Kabru, which Graham claimed to have climbed by the East Face in three days, reaching the summit on 8 September.

Thomas Longstaff, Douglas Freshfield, and Carl Rubenson – Freshfield having travelled extensively in the same area himself and Rubenson having reached the same point on Kabru in 1907.[1][16] In his 1955 history of Himalayan climbing Kenneth Mason argued that Graham had not climbed Kabru, pointing to the vagueness of his description of the mountain, inconsistencies between his account and modern observations of the mountain, the remarkably quick ascent he claimed, and the fact that he appeared to have suffered little or no altitude sickness on his ascent.[17] In a more recent history, Walt Unsworth argued that the vagueness of Graham's account was to be expected from a man who was a mountaineer rather than a surveyor, and that now Mount Everest has been climbed in a single day without oxygen, Graham's claims seem less outlandish than they once did, so that he should perhaps be credited with the ascent after all.[16] In a 10-page analysis in 2009, Blaser and Hughes argued that "it is time to put the doubts to rest, and give Graham, Boss and Kauffmann their due credit for an extraordinary achievement".[1]

Later life

He disappeared from mountaineering history after his year in the Himalayas and after making his initial report of his Himalayan expedition he never made any further comment or engaged in the ensuing controversy.

Durango and was an associate of the American Society of Engineers.[24][25][26] From 1910 until 1932, he served as British Consul in Durango.[27] In 1927, when he went on vacation in the United States for three months, he was married to a person named Anette.[28]
The year of his death is unknown.

References

  1. ^
    The Alpine Journal
    2009, pp. 219-228
  2. ^ Birth Registration, Hackney, London, General Register Office, Southport, England
  3. ^ 1861 England, Scotland and Wales census, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
  4. ^ a b Wedding of William Woodman Graham and Marie Crancer Heimke in México, Distrito Federal, registros parroquiales y diocesanos, 1514-1970.
  5. ^ Oxford graduation announcements in the Ecclesiastical Gazette, 15 January 1881
  6. ^ Calls to the Bar in The Solicitors' Journal and Reporter, Volume 27 (1883) pp. 184 and 234.
  7. Unsworth, Walt
    (1977). Encyclopaedia of Mountaineering. London: Mountaineers Books. p. 154.
  8. ^ a b Willett, Maxine; Wells, Colin (6 August 2006). "Graham, William Woodman (c. 1859–unknown)". Mountain Heritage Trust. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  9. Unsworth, Walt (1994). Hold the Heights: The Foundations of Mountaineering. Seattle: Penguin Books
    . p. 232.
  10. ^ The late Emil Boss, of "The Bear", The Press, 7 November 1888.
  11. ^ Unsworth (1994) p. 233
  12. ^ Quoted in Unsworth (1994), p. 234
  13. ^ a b Unsworth (1994), p. 234
  14. ISBN 978-0-906371-91-6
  15. ^ a b Unsworth (1994), p. 235
  16. ^ a b c d Unsworth (1994), p. 236
  17. ^ Mason, p.94
  18. ^ Blaser & Hughes, p. 224 footnote, quoting Walt Unsworth’s Encyclopaedia of Mountaineering (1992)
  19. ^ Mining concession to William Woodman Graham in Recopilacion de leyes, decretos y providencias de los poderes legislativo y ejecutivo de la union, Volume 52, Imprenta del Gobierno, en Palacio, 1889, Decree 197, pp. 913-24. (in Spanish)
  20. ^ Graham, William W. in the Commercial Directory of the American Republics, 1898
  21. ^ Wedding Announcement, in The Leavenworth Times, Thursday, 19 July 1900, Page 5
  22. ^ William Heimke (1847–1931) at the History of the Department of State website
  23. ^ The Leavenworth Times, Tuesday, 29 November 1904. Page 4.
  24. ^ List of members and Associates, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, 1908
  25. ^ W.W. Graham in the American Society of Civil Engineers list of Engineers of 1909
  26. ^ William Woodman Graham, 1910 in the New York Passenger Arrival Lists (Ellis Island), 1892-1924. He describes himself as an engineer, and, on all such documents, as Scottish.
  27. ^ Unsworth (1994), pp. 392–3
  28. ^ Immigration, Manifests of Aliens Granted Temporary Admission at El Paso, Texas, ca. July 1924 - 1954, M1757.

External links

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