Raeburn, Harold Andrew (1865–1926), mountaineer

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Raeburn, Harold Andrew (1865–1926), mountaineer

21 July 1865 - 21 December 1926

Born on 21 July 1865 in Edinburgh, the fourth son of William Raeburn, a brewer, and his wife, Jessie, née Ramsay. In 1896 Raeburn joined the Scottish Mountaineering Club, which had been founded in 1889, and within a few years he became its leading climber, recording many classic routes throughout Scotland. He climbed further afield too including the first British guideless ascent of the Zmutt ridge of the Matterhorn in 1906, as well as first ascents in Norway and the Caucasus. In 1904 he joined the Alpine Club (London).

Raeburn was vice-president of the Scottish Mountaineering Club from 1909 to 1911, but later turned down the presidency.

1921 he was appointed lead climber on the the First Everest expedition. By the time the expedition reached Tibet, dysentery had broken out. One member of the party, Alexander Mitchell Kellas, died, and Raeburn himself had to be carried down and spent two months in hospital. Against common sense he returned to the expedition, but he was exhausted and never really recovered. Declining health eventually led to his death five years later. He died, unmarried, at Craig House, Edinburgh, on 21 December 1926.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography