William Mathews

:"For William Henry Mathews (1919–2003), Canadian geologist, see Bill Mathews".:"For the baseball player, see William Matthews".----William Mathews (1828–1901) was an English mountaineer, land agent and surveyor, who first proposed the formation of the Alpine Club of London in 1857.

Founding of the Alpine Club

Mathews had corresponded with F. J. A. Hort about the idea of founding a national mountaineering club in February 1857 and took the idea up with E. S. Kennedy on an ascent of the Finsteraarhorn on 13 August 1857 (the fifth ascent of the mountain and the first British ascent). [ [http://www.stnet.ch/st/alpin150/txt/erst_finsteraarhorn_en.doc Finsteraarhorn] at stnet.ch (accessed 7 January 2008): On this ascent Mathews and Kennedy were accompanied by J. C. W. Ellis, John Frederick Hardy, Benjamin St John Attwood-Mathews, and by four guides, Auguste Simond and Jean Baptiste Croz, of Chamonix, Johann Jaun the Elder, of Meiringen, Aloys Bortis, of Fiesch, and by one porter, Alexander Guntern. Ad-hoc meetings at Mathews's house near Birmingham proceeded during November,Claire Engel, "Mountaineering in the Alps", London: George Allen and Unwin, 1971, p. 112. Mathews and Kennedy approached John Ruskin to become a member, but he declined. p. 113. and the meeting at which the Alpine Club was founded took place on 22 December 1857 at Ashley's Hotel in London, chaired by Kennedy.

Mathews was the fifth President of the Alpine Club, serving from 1868–1871.

First ascents

*Grande Casse with guides Michel Croz and E. Favre on 8 August 1860
*Castor with F. W. Jacomb and Michel Croz on 23 August 1861
*Monte Viso with F. W. Jacomb and Michel Croz on 30 August 1861
*Grandes Rousses with Thomas George Bonney, and Michel Croz with his brother Jean-Baptiste Croz in 1863

Publications

*'Mechanical properties of ice, and their relation to glacier motion', by William Mathews, President of the Alpine Club, in "Nature", March 24, 1870 [ [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=div&did=HISTSCITECH.0012.0060.0006&isize=M History of Science and Technology] at wisc.edu (accessed 8 January 2008)]
*"The Flora of Algeria: considered in relation to the physical history of the Mediterranean region and supposed submergence of the Sahara" (London: Edward Stanford, 1880)

References