Lord Francis William Bouverie Douglas
Lord
Francis William Bouverie Douglas (8 February 1847 – 14 July 1865)
was a British mountaineer. After sharing in the first ascent of the
Matterhorn, he died in a fall on the way down from the summit.
Born in Scotland at Cummertrees, Dumfries, Douglas was the son
of Archibald William Douglas, 8th Marquess of Queensberry and his
wife Caroline, daughter of General Sir William Robert Clayton, Bt.
(1786–1866), member of parliament for Great Marlow. He had an older
sister, Lady Gertrude Georgiana Douglas (1842-1893); an older
brother, John Sholto Douglas, Viscount Drumlanrig (1844–1900), later
the ninth Marquess of Queensberry; a younger brother, Lord Archibald
Edward Douglas (1850–1938), who became a clergyman; and a younger
brother and sister, the twins Lord James Douglas (d. 1891) and
Lady
Florence Douglas (1855-1905), who married Sir Alexander Beaumont
Churchill Dixie, 11th Baronet. Douglas was educated at the Edinburgh
Academy.
In 1860, Douglas's father, Lord Queensberry, died in
what was reported as a shooting accident, but his death was widely
believed to have been suicide. In 1862, his mother, Lady
Queensberry, converted to Roman Catholicism and took her children to
live in Paris.
At the beginning of 1865, the Matterhorn was
still unconquered, and more than one assault on it was planned. One
such group consisted of Douglas, Edward Whymper, and their guide
Peter Taugwalder. Whymper had already made several unsuccessful
attempts on the mountain. On 5 July, this group made the second
ascent (and the first by the north-north-west ridge) of the Ober
Gabelhorn, a peak of 4,053 metres on the north-west side of the
Matterhorn; also in July, Douglas made the first ascent of the
nearby Unter Gabelhorn (3,391 m) with guides Peter Taugwalder and P.
Inäbnit.
Hearing of a planned assault on the main peak by an
Italian party, Douglas and Whymper joined forces with two other
British climbers, Charles Hudson and Douglas Robert Hadow, and their
guide Michel Croz.
At 4:30 a.m. on 13 July, a combined party
of seven men, led by Whymper, set off for the Matterhorn under a
clear sky: Whymper, Douglas, Hudson and Hadow, plus Taugwalder and
son, and Croz. They climbed past the Schwarzsee to a plateau where
they camped. Meanwhile, the Italians, led by Carrel, had camped at a
height of about 4000 meters on the Lion Ridge.
On 14 July,
Whymper's party proceeded to a successful first ascent by the Hörnli
route. However, on the way down, Hadow fell, knocking down Croz, and
also dragging Hudson and Douglas, connected by a rope. The four fell
to their deaths on the Matterhorn Glacier 1,400 metres below. Three
of the bodies lost were later found, but not Douglas's.
The
rival party of Italian alpinists reached the Matterhorn's summit
three days later.
Two years after Lord Francis Douglas's
death, his brother the Marquess of Queensberry achieved fame as the
man who gave his name to the Marquess of Queensberry rules of
boxing. Forty years on, as the father of Lord Alfred Douglas, he
became the man who brought down Oscar Wilde. Their sister Lady
Florence Dixie also came to public attention, as a traveller, war
correspondent, writer and feminist. Their brother Lord James Douglas
suffered for many years from depression and alcoholism, and in 1891
he killed himself by cutting his throat.
A book about the
death of Douglas and his companions, The First Descent of the
Matterhorn, by Alan Lyall, was published in 1997.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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