WM
The basics
Quick facts
Intro
British mountain climber and botanist
A.K.A.
Mathews
Gender:
Male
Places:
Work field:
Birth:
1 January 1828(London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom)
Death:
1 January 1901(London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom)
The details
Biography
Introduction
William Mathews (1828–1901) was an English mountaineer, botanist, 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). Ad-hoc meetings at Mathews's house near Birmingham proceeded during November, 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.
Monte Viso, first climbed by Mathews, Jacomb and Croz in 1861
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, 24 March 1870
- 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)