Arthur
Dimmock died on 25th November 2007, aged 89. He was very
well known and liked in the Deaf community and
he had many interests including the British Deaf History
Society, Deaf sport, travel and writing. But perhaps his
greatest enjoyment came from walking in the mountains and
hills. He
was a life member of the Deaf Mountaineering Club and
he spent
many happy days in the Lake District, sometimes with the DMC
and sometimes on his own.
In 1998 Arthur wrote and published
a book called "Deaf Mountaineering Club; Its history and
mountainlore". In it he tells how when he was 10 years old
his
first view of the mountains was during an ascent of
Saddleback in
the Lake District in 1928 with his father leading the way.
They lived in Northumberland and had arrived in Keswick by
tandem (a
bicycle for 2 people).
At that time the Abraham brothers, who
lived in Keswick, were famous for their rock climbs and
their black
and white photographs of people rock climbing. Arthur's
father
introduced him to one of the Abraham brothers and Mr.
Abraham
gave Arthur a penny (a lot of money to a 10 year old boy in
1928).
In another part of the DMC book Arthur writes about when
he
spent a week fell walking on his own in the 1970s in the
Lake District. On the first day he
started from Keswick and walked
over the fell tops to Wasdale where he stayed overnight at a
farmhouse. On another day during the week he walked from
Patterdale over Helvellyn to Grasmere in very bad weather.
When he arrived at Grasmere his boots were so badly damaged
from walking in the rain he could not wear them any more, so
he
went to the churchyard in Grasmere and left his boots on the
grave
of the famous Lakeland poet William Wordsworth and he took a
photograph of them to remember his week's walking
holiday.
These are just some of the interesting stories told by
Arthur in
his book. He continued to walk in the Lake District well
into old
age and he attended the DMC Annual Meet and Dinner in
November in Keswick into his 80s. The DMC is saddened to
have
lost one of its most loyal and enthusiastic members, but
Arthur
will live on in our memories.
I. H.
