More Centenaries

(1) The University Students’ Show

“Show,” as it is universally known nowadays, was first produced in 1921. In contrast to the stage production in His Majesty’s Theatre which has become such a familiar feature of the Aberdeen scene, the first production took place in the Debater in Marischal College and took the form of a mock trial, which was a common form of entertainment at the time. It was a fund-raising exercise for the University RAG week. In the following year Stella the Bajanella was the first scripted musical comedy which was written and produced by a student, Eric Linklater (1913-16). It was a resounding success and set the pattern for later years. While this may have changed to a sketch-based revue in recent years the bond between participating students is as intense as ever. Linklater was elected Rector of the University in 1945 by a substantial majority and it was typical of his versatility and ability that he wrote the script for the 1946 Show, To meet the MacGregors which was hugely successful, playing to packed houses in H.M. Theatre. Over the years many Former Pupils have played prominent roles in Show and, while Show experience is not a prime qualification for becoming President of the F.P. Club, Linklater himself was President in 1956-57 followed in 2001-02 by Steve Robertson. Dozens of other FPs have taken part both on stage, as musicians and as administrators.

(2) A Himalayan Disaster The First Martyr to Everest

On 5th June 1921 Alexander Mitchell Kellas (1881-84) died from sudden heart failure at Kampa Dzong, Tibet while he was a member of the 1921 Mount Everest Expedition. He was one of four brothers who all attended the School in the last two decades of the 19th century. His father was head of Aberdeen Mercantile Marine Board with his home and office in a mansion on Regent Quay who moved the family to Carden Place so that the boys could attend the Grammar School. He went on to gain a DSc. from London and a PhD from Heidelberg after which he lectured in physics and chemistry at Middlesex Hospital in London.

From a young age he had a fascination for hills. His mother’s family farmed near Ballater and Alex explored the Cairngorms on a regular basis. Day trips to Lochnagar expanded into long walks into the Cairngorms, a favourite overnight stop being at the Shelter Stone below Ben Macdhui. The strength which was to be critical in his later mountaineering was evident when, at the age of 17, he and his 15-year-old brother walked from the family farm at Ballater to the Shelter Stone,

a distance of 35 miles, in twelve hours, over-nighted there, climbed Ben Macdhui and on the same day walked back to Ballater.

While still climbing in Scotland Alex expanded his experience by climbing in Norway and in the Alps, but none of this was significant. Then, on impulse, in 1908, at the age of forty, he visited India where he made several journeys to the mountains of Northern Sikkim and Garhwal. He then revisited the region every year until the outbreak of war in 1914, by which time he had climbed several virgin peaks in Sikkim above 20,000 feet and had spent more time at that altitude than anyone else alive at that time. In 1911 he climbed Mount Pauhunri, 23,180 feet, and in 1920 reached 23,600 feet on Kamet.

Kellas had trained in chemistry and taught this subject to medical students. His own early research had been into various aspects of both organic and inorganic chemistry. He gradually became interested in the physiology of high altitude, no doubt because of his scientific background and his personal experience of high altitude. He became an authority on acute mountain sickness and wrote on this subject. He worked in conjunction with one of the most eminent British physiologists of the early 20th century on a study of acclimatization due to repeated exposure to low pressure in a chamber of the Lister Institute in London. While his early Himalayan expeditions were primarily exploratory he became gradually more interested in using them to study the physiological problems of extreme altitude, and at one point he wrote a tentative proposal for a medical scientific expedition to remain for a period of several months at an altitude of 20,000 feet to study the physiology of acclimatization. It is remarkable that such an expedition was not organised until more than forty years later, and then at a slightly more modest height of 19,000 feet.

Kellas did not publish much, but noteworthy was his paper entitled “A consideration of the possibility of ascending the loftier Himalayas” which was published in the Journal of the Royal Geographic Society. An unpublished study entitled “A consideration of the possibility of ascending Mount Everest” was written while Kellas was preparing for what were to be his last two Himalayan expeditions. He posed the question as to whether it was possible to reach the summit of Mount Everest without adventitious aids and, if not, does an ascent with oxygen appear to be feasible?

The first physical difficulty discussed was that of access. The mountain had so far never been visited by white men and it was unlikely that any mortal had reached an altitude of even 20,000 feet upon it. His knowledge of the local geography enabled Kellas to suggest three possible routes from Darjeeling, depending on permission from the authorities of Tibet or Nepal, the former being the most likely, and so it turned out.

In 1919 Kellas had a period of ill health at home in Aberdeen, suffering a mental breakdown. He benefited from expert advice and was able to resume his plans. He returned with a colleague to Kamet in the Garhwal in 1920, reached 36

Former Pupils’ Section 22,998 feet and broke the back of the mountain. A porters’ rebellion ended the attempt, but he continued with further experiments on the use of oxygen at altitude. He predicted that Everest could be climbed by a fit, strong person without oxygen, as was proved when this feat was achieved by two climbers in 1978.

Over the years of his visits to India Kellas explored the approaches to Mount Everest and to Kangkenjunga. His detailed knowledge made him a natural choice for the first Mount Everest Expedition of 1921 and, had he been younger, he would very possibly have been its leader. Having set out on the expedition, Kellas died at Kampa Dzong, in Tibet, from a combination of dysenteric illness brought about by unhygienic food and the effects of his strenuous mountaineering activities in Sikkim before he joined the Expedition. He was buried on one of the slopes within sight of Everest and overlooking the three great peaks Chomiomo, Chumalhari and Kungchinjinga which he alone had already climbed. The grave lies in a site unsurpassed for beauty looking out over the broad plains and rolling hills of Tibet to the mighty snow mountains of the Himalaya.

Another memorial was erected at the Rongbuk Glacier in 1924 where the duo of Mallory and Irvine and several Sherpas had lost their lives. Kellas Rock peak near Everest was named after him as was Kellas Peak in Sikkim which is still unclimbed.

Lt Robert Combe, Canadian FPs and the Great War

The Canada Centre of the Former Pupils’ Club has honoured the memory of Robert Grierson Combe, a resident of Melville, Saskatchewan, with the following inscription on the Centre President’s Badge of Office: “Commemorating Lt. Robert G. Combe (1894-97), VC, 27th Bn. Canadian Infantry, d. 3rd May 1917, France.” In honouring Robert the Centre also seeks to remember all Canadian FPs who served and fell in the First World War, their names among those of the 243 FPs who lost their lives in that terrible conflict and who are remembered on the School’s War Memorial. (Combe is also remembered elsewhere in Aberdeen, including Bon Accord Terrace Gardens, at various locations in Canada and on the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge.) Canadian FPs predominantly served with Canadian military units; a small number returned to join British units such as the Gordon Highlanders and the Royal Engineers. However, those who served and fell in the latter group have yet to be added to the statistics that were reported at the time for FPs in Canadian units.

The statistics were compiled by the indefatigable Theodore Watt (1889-1901) when preparing the Aberdeen Grammar School Roll of Pupils, 1795-1919 (1923) and revisited by Richard Dargie (1964-73) in The Grammar at War, 1914-18 (2014). About 80 FPs were reported as having served in the Canadian 37