John Menlove Edwards

John Menlove Edwards (18 June 1910 – 2 February 1958) was one of the leading British rock climbers of the interwar period and wrote poetry based on his experiences climbing.

He was born near Southport and studied medicine at Liverpool University, where he became a child psychiatrist. He was homosexual. During World War II he was a conscientious objector. After an unhappy personal life, which made him vulnerable to bouts of depression, he committed suicide with a cyanide capsule in 1958.

His first ascents include many of the now-classic rock routes on the crags of the Llanberis Pass in Snowdonia such as "Flying Buttress", "Spiral Stairs", "Crackstone Rib", "Nea" and "Brant".

Quotes

* "I grew up exuberant in body but with a nervy, craving mind. It was wanting something more, something tangible. It sought for reality intensely, always as if it were not there... But you see at once what I do. I climb."

References

Jim Perrin, "Menlove", 1985, Gollancz (reprinted by The Ernest Press)