In terms of public service, Ted Peck was one of our most distinguished members. But he was no mean mountaineer. He served his Alpine apprenticeship in Switzerland in the early 1930s. He joined the Consular Service in 1938. From then most of his mountaineering was in the countries in which he served.

His first posting was to Barcelona, but climbing in Spain was inhibited by the Spanish civil war. He was more fortunate in Turkey, where he served for most of World War II. If I may quote from his own words:

“In 1943 I was in Ankara and Robin [Hodgkin] in Khartoum. Having climbed Jebel Kassala and not finding much else to climb in the Sudan, Robin came to join me in what he later generously called an ‘expedition’ to the Ala Dag range, which I had reconnoitred the previous year. I had then spotted the long couloir on the west face of the highest peak Demirkazik (3756m) as the key to the climb and with Robin taking much of the lead we reached the summit by this route, hoping it was a first ascent. To our dismay, we found a swastika pennant left by the German expedition of 1938. This we removed, to indicate to the Turks below that the Nazis had designs on their mountains. It now rests in the archives of the Alpine Club. The current guidebook to this now popular range records the route as the ‘Hodgkin-Peck Couloir’.”*

Appointments to Salonica, where he was involved with another civil war, India and Kenya, where he was High Commissioner, followed. His final appointment was as Britain’s Permanent Representative to NATO in Brussels and he was promoted GCMG.

He retired to Tomintoul, where he became actively involved in conservation issues relating to the Cairngorms. I do not believe that he held office in the Club, but he did sterling work for the Mount Everest Foundation.

I got to know him, and his beloved wife Alison, who predeceased him by only a few months, on the Club trek around Annapurna led by Emlyn Jones. He was a resolute and doughty goer, and whilst on first acquaintance he may have appeared a little crusty, he had a wicked sense of humour and was a great companion in the hills.

The Club is the poorer for his passing.

Stuart Beare

Delivered at the General Meeting 8 September 2009

* Taken from Sir Edward Peck’s tribute to Robin Hodgkin in 2004 AJ p378.