Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine (21 page)

The next day he had sobered up and wrote a poignant and honest letter to Evelyn in which he poured out all his thoughts and anxieties.

Sorry if I appeared a bit blunt on the phone, but I was quite bowled over by Dick’s letter.  I suppose I should congratulate you - but I think it is Dick that needs the congratulations more than you. …I must admit I don’t feel at all happy.  I’m probably in a pessimistic mood but there it is.  I like Dick beyond words but – Oh I can’t say it all in a letter – what it comes to is that he needs changing completely and even then he wouldn’t be half good enough… Oh E, it’s all very upsetting.  I better not say more, I may only spoil your pleasure.  I know Dick is everything that could be desired – I like him more than any man I’ve every met – there isn’t a kinder or more generous soul in all the world but you’ll have to make a real man of him before I’ll feel really happy about it. 

That was one of the fundamental problems for Sandy: Dick was not in his opinion a real man.  The early loss of his mother had left him anxious and insecure, emotionally weak where the Irvines were strong.  Sandy feared that it would be Evelyn’s role in the marriage to wear the pants.  In a way he was right but what he failed to appreciate was that she knew what she was taking on.

Sandy could only fret that his sister was being ‘wasted’ on his friend.  He wrote: ‘There is only one sister in this family & we can’t afford any experiments with her. I suppose I shouldn’t interfere in other people’s business but a brother cares more for a sister than all the other brothers put together & I frankly am not happy about it yet – I always pictured someone totally different – a man – a real rough rider who really knew what life was.’  Was he not modelling his ideal man for her on himself?  I strongly suspect he was, in which case he would have been pushed ever to find someone to live up to his expectations.  Not only did Sandy feel betrayed, rightly or wrongly, by Dick and Evelyn’s engagement, but perhaps more significantly he feared that Evelyn had been chosen as second best after Dick’s friendship with Thyra, had ended so abruptly.  His own relationship with Evelyn had become somewhat strained after the affair with Marjory had developed.  Perhaps he saw now that the delicious naughtiness of the affair was but temporal and Evelyn had found real love, something which had eluded him in his life.  Possibly also his outspoken dismay had something to do with his embarrassment at the fact that his indiscretion compromized her in her future father-in-law’s eyes.

A week or so later he wrote back to Dick a rather more measured if equally emotional letter:

My dear Dick, If you are both the same next year there is no objection in the world.  I was quite naturally very bowled over when I heard – My first thoughts were naturally I think a) you were too young to think of marrying b) E had not met enough men as she has always been tied to Mothers apron strings.  You seemed to have shown no outward signs ever + E had always laughed at the idea as ridiculous when I had suggested it – so I thought it might be a case of ‘I must marry someone soon’. 

He went on to agonize over the fact that he would lose them both as absolute friends and worried that Dick’s money would spoil Evelyn although he did admit that it hadn’t spoiled Dick in his opinion. 

Dick I hope you don’t mind my saying all this – it may sound as if I’ve got a grudge against you – well since the first game of Fives at Salop [Shrewsbury] I’ve never had a better friend in the world! To think you
ever
doubted my friendship – perhaps it sounded like it in my letter but I thought you knew me better than that.  I never in my life will be able to repay you for all your kindness & the good times you have given me. If you doubt my friendship after all that you make me out one of the most degraded bounders that ever bounded.  I’m always your best & truest friend though there may have been times when I haven’t shown it outwardly.

He signed off: ‘Subject to Medical Examination I have been finally accepted so I’m again walking on metaphorical air.’ And then in a thoroughly schoolboy manner he concludes the letter with a postscript that has always caused a very wry smile when used by anyone in the family: ‘I haven’t time to read this through again so forgive any errors of punctuation, alliteration or constipation.’ 

Despite the ending, this letter is written from the heart and gives an unequivocal and resounding endorsement of the importance he attached to friendship and family.  The dilemma for Sandy was that friendship and family met in this engagement and it is that which threw him so badly off course.  The thought of losing both his best friend and his sister hurt him more than he could handle: he would never again have access to their undivided affections.  If ever there was a revealing moment to show Sandy’s vulnerable side it is here.  He felt himself being eased out of the picture by the two people he cared for most in the world and the panic that that potential loss instilled in him was immense.  Over the week between the two letters he wrote to Dick he had rationalized it in his mind, but I think this episode gives a once only glance into his heart, into the insecure soul that dwelled within.  The letters from Sandy caused both Evelyn and Dick terrible hurt.  Relations were already strained in view of the Marjory affair and to have Sandy expressing his opinion so directly and openly both confused and upset them.  They were quite unaware that their engagement would cause him so much pain and distress.  But clearly it did and it cast a shadow over his relationship with Evelyn, which lasted almost up until the time he sailed for India.  With Dick I don’t think he ever had a complete rapprochement.

With this shattering experience behind him, Sandy turned his attentions to his other obligations.  First there was the forthcoming Everest expedition, then there was the small matter of his college work and, finally, he had committed himself to coaching the Trial VIIIs in preparation for the 1924 Boat Race.  It is absolutely in character that Sandy should not allow a new and alluring opportunity to divert him from what he considered to be his duties and he threw himself into the coaching with his usual gusto.  In a manner typical of his empirical attitude towards life, he was frequently to be seen pedalling up and down the towpath along the Isis on a tricycle.  A somewhat unusual method of transport for someone as athletic as Sandy was explained by Patrick Johnson, a friend from Merton, in a letter to Bill Summers in 1986.  ‘This saved the trouble of getting on to and off the bicycle; when in motion, Sandy kept one wheel off the ground.’  This somewhat eccentric behaviour did not escape the notice of the local press who were rather more bemused by it than his friends, who were used to Sandy’s foibles. 

In the meantime the Mount Everest Committee was bombarding Sandy with paperwork.  There were agreements for signature, clothing lists and instructions as to equipment he would need, documents from Captain Noel about the filming of the expedition and sundry other communications.   Soon after he signed the agreement he made contact with Percy Unna, the member of the oxygen subcommittee charged with making arrangements for the equipment to be ready in time for February.  Unna had been forewarned by Odell that Sandy was handy with mechanical matters and it did not take Sandy long to persuade Unna to let him have a 1922 oxygen set which he took back to Oxford and began to work on in the labs there, although parts of it frequently found its way into his rooms.  One of his fellow students recalled him cocooned in his room, clouds of pipe smoke billowing from the door, ‘struggling with a somewhat imperfect oxygen apparatus'.  He examined the mechanism of the set very carefully and then dismantled it completely in an effort to reduce the complexity of the workings and to make the apparatus lighter and more user-friendly.  In the 1922 set the oxygen bottles had been carried upright in the frame attached to the climber’s back with a complicated number of valves and tubes that were only able to be exchanged by another climber or by the climber taking the set off and altering it himself.  Sandy wrote extensive notes on the 1922 set and referred to the design thus: 

With the present form of Mount Everest Oxygen Apparatus the cylinder valves are at the top of the back & so can only be turned when the apparatus is standing on the ground.  This arrangement also requires that 2 auxiliary valves be carried in such a position that the climber can easily turn from one cylinder to the other.  The weight of these auxiliary valves is quite a consideration & might be eliminated if the cylinders were inverted, so putting the cylinder valves in a convenient position to be used by the climber wearing the apparatus.

Above: Sketch and instructions for the 1922 Mount Everest oxygen set.

He concluded that by inverting the cylinders much of the tubing could be done away with and would have the added advantage that the climber could jettison a used bottle from his back pack without having to take it off.  Such a simple alteration to the design would considerably reduce the weight, complexity and vulnerability of the apparatus, doing away with the fragile tubes that were apt to get in the climber’s way and get damaged during a scramble.  He worked up the drawings during November and, with Unna’s blessing, sent the revised designs to Siebe Gorman with his notes attached. 

To my delight a full set of the oxygen drawings Sandy had sent to Siebe Gorman, plus his handwritten notes to accompany them, turned up in the May 2000 find.  The drawings are exquisitely and minutely observed and the notes fluent and comprehensive.  Not only had he given the oxygen set a great deal of his time and attention, but he had really got to grips with the system and the suggestions for modifications he made were done so with the confidence of somebody who really understood the nature of the problem. Unfortunately the Siebe Gorman correspondence has been lost over the years, but the company was clearly irritated by Sandy’s recommendations, feeling that comments from a twenty-one-year-old chemistry student could not be taken seriously.  Whether or not they communicated this to Sandy I have been unable to find out, but by the time he met up with the oxygen apparatus in Darjeeling and saw that his suggestions had been completely ignored he was extremely indignant.

One of the oxygen drawings by Sandy found in the black trunk in 2000.

Sandy visited Unna three times in London in the February of 1924, twice to discuss the oxygen apparatus and once to talk about primus stoves which, it became evident, were also to be his responsibility on the expedition.  Unna clearly liked him enormously. After Sandy’s death he wrote to Willie asking to be forgiven for promoting the venture which lead to the tragedy.  He wrote: ‘The first time one met him one could not help thinking that there was the man one would like to have as a life long friend and be proud if one could do so.’  On one of Sandy’s London visits he dined with Unna and his sister, who was equally impressed by his dashing appearance and modest manner.  Sandy and Unna were very much of the same turn of mind and talked at great length about the equipment that would be required for the expedition. Unna was pleased to find someone who took this responsibility so seriously and gave him leave to spend money on additional equipment and tools that he thought he might be required.  One of the first things Sandy did was to put together a tool box, getting details of washer, bolt and screw sizes and types from Siebe Gorman, amongst others.  He knew full well that there would be running repairs to all manner of equipment on the march and he tried to ensure that he had the right tools and enough spare parts to feel sure that he would be able to carry out running repairs.  Here was Sandy focusing his mind very clearly and given that he had only Unna’s and others reports of previous mishaps and malfunctions to go on, it is quite remarkable that he was as successful as he was in preparing an adequate kit; this to the extent that nobody who brought an article to him for repair during the long march and the weeks on the mountain was ever let down.  The only thing he failed to mend satisfactorily was his own watch.