We left Coventry in 1955/56 as my Father worked for the tax department and they moved him around the country regularly. David went on to Birmingham University and got a B.Sc in Chemistry and then, I think, in 1961 got a Ph.D. in Chemistry and went to work for ICI in Stockton and later went to lecture at Keele University. I followed him to Birmingham where I met my husband and then dates grow hazy as we were raising our own children. David got married in 1963 to Janet Tennant from Wallasey who had studied at Birmingham College of Art and they had Bridget in 1966 and Glyn in 1971. David and Janet had emigrated to South Africa and lived in Johannesburg where Janet is still. It was on a climbing trip to the Matterhorn in August 1984 that David fell and was killed. He is buried in the cemetery at Zermatt and there is a plaque in the English church there in his memory.
I do not know if the Coventry Evening Telegraph had anything about the accident but we have something from the Bexhill Observer where my parents were living at the time, as also from a South African paper and an obituary from the Midland Mountaineers. I will send you copies of these to use as doubtless there are friends of David's from Bablake who wondered what happened to him. He was one of those wonderfully gifted people, he seemed to be able to do everything, 1st XV, 1st XI, prefect, Coventry Major scholarship.
but in fact he worked terribly hard for everything. My Mother never got over his death. I went to Zermatt with them one summer, it was a wonderful experience for us. Incidentally, my son also climbs.

17. xl. 54        

I am glad to have the opportunity of recording the high opinion that I have of David Owen Hughes. He came to this school in 1950 from King Edward’s Grammar Aston and very quickly made a success of the difficult job of transplanting, coming top of the form at the end of his second year. The late unlamented age bar prevented him from offering his ordinaries at the time which would have been most convenient to him and he pressed on into the Sixth Form to specialize in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, in which subjects he has now passed at advanced level, besides passing at ordinary level in English Language, History, Geography and French. By next July I confidently expect him to have won some sort of an award with which to proceed to university.
            Our opinion of him as a person can be gauged from the fact that he was seriously considered for the school captaincy, but did not get it only because his two rivals had assured their academic future by winning state scholarships. But Hughes beside academic ability had a mature personality. He is keen and whole-hearted in all that he does: he has his own opinions and can express them definitely yet reasonably. His form masters have awarded him the highest assessments for alertness and initiative: his essential common sense makes him a stable influence, and his natural courtesy makes him a very pleasant person to have in a school. In my opinion he will make the finest type of undergraduate.

                                                                                                   A.E.Seaborne

                                                                                             M.A.(Oxon.)
                                                                                                Head Master

DAVID OWEN HUGHES
Dave Hughes died in a fall from the Hornli Ridge of the Matterhorn in August 1984 while descending after having completed an ascent in good time. It appears probably to have been a simple slip on steep but easy ground, after he and his companion had decided to unrope. He is buried in Zermatt.
I first met Dave through the Stoats when 1 was a Fresher at Birmingham University and he was just starting to work for his PhD in the Chemistry Department. He seemed to progress through his student days without apparent effort and on receiving his PhD moved to work for I.C.I, at Billingham. A few years later he felt the call to return to University circles and obtained a post as lecturer in Chemistry at Keele University. Unfortunately, this was not long before the major student unrest which occurred at the end of the 1960s. Dave was not happy with what he saw and also had serious doubts about the long term career prospects in this field. He moved again, this time to join the staff of African Explosive and Chemical Industries, one of the largest industrial concerns in South Africa and, in effect, I.C.I.'s representation there. This proved to be a constructive move, and he advanced through the company, until at the time of his death he held the senior post of research manager.
Dave was in the Stoats at a time when the men of influence were of strong character and only too ready to revel in student freedoms. This, coupled with his strong competitive instinct and his view, repeated only a few days before his death (only partly tongue-in-cheek) that everything should be done to excess, produced a person who was naturally at the forefront 0} every endeavour, be it responsible or outrageous. He was a good all-round sportsman, keen on cricket and rugby, then becoming an excellent squash player. He climbed steadily and with dedication at home, in the Alps and in Africa, being one of the group who brought the Stoat's climbing from the doldrums to respectability in the early 1960s. Particularly he became a leader in the subtle competitive interplay between the members of whatever group he was in, be ic the Stoats, the MAM or the Cleveland Mountaineering Club. At Kcele he became a leading light in the University Mountaineering Club and then a pacemaker in the Johannesburg expatriate British climbing scene, his activities ranging through the Transvaal, Cape Province, the Drakensberg, Southwest Africa and Mount Kenya.
Despite family, work, climbing and high standard squash, his competitive spirit needed still further outlet. This he found in the form of long distance running, booming in South Africa even more than in the U.K. Despite not starting until soon before he was classed as a Veteran (much to his disgust), he was soon running manuhons and double marathons with very little specific preparation. Perhaps typical would be for him to climb on Saturday, go to a party on Saturday night and run a marathon on Sunday.
Through all this he was ever present and setting the pace in all that he did. He excelled at his work, and one feels that he may well have been destined for posts even more senior than his last one. He was a committee member of his section of the Mountain Club of South Africa, climbing guide writer and Chairman of his Sports Club. In whatever he did the urge to test himself was always there, to the extent of ceaselessly measuring himself against other people and others against himself. It gave him great delight to display the triumph of the cunning of age over the strength of youth.
He said recently that perhaps good luck was only the product of making the right decisions, even though at the time the reasons for the decisions may not have been obvious. He seemed to come through ail his scrapes by always making the right decisions. Despite his driving and sometimes rather uncompromising exterior he had considerable charm and a great sensitivity to the needs and weaknesses of others, possessed of a quiet and understated practicality, honest and loyal. Though he had a strong sense of what was morally right, he was a realist and under no illusions about the world or country in which he lived. Me could easily see and debate the various facets of any subject in which he was interested:- politics, economics, business, South African history, sport, climbing and its ethics, and a host of others.
He maintained a deep affection for the Stoats, producing an anthology of Stoats' writings over the years in time for their 50th Anniversary. His affection for the MAM was no less (he was one of the original discoverers of Low House) and when in the U.K. on business he often managed a little time in the places where his climbing started, snatching days in the Lakes, at Trcmadoc, in the Gower and at the MAM/Stoats Jubilee Dinner. His death occurred at the end of the Alpine Meet, a meet which he had specifically flown over from South Africa to join.
It is difficult to write objectively about a person one has admired and loved for so long, the more so under these circumstances. We have lost one of the finest men we could ever have had as a member, and many of us have lost ore of our best and oldest friends. It was only distance that prevented him becoming far more well known to the whole membership. Vie will always remember that slightly impish face with i:s wicked grin recounting the tale of some preposterous near-miss, or the serious and methodical preparation aimed ut the ideal combination of success at the end and fun en route, be it a hard climb or a night at the pub.
I do not necessarily believe that the mode of a person's passing can be a reflection u! the way that they would choose, and the place of Dave's death can be no more than coincidence. However, he often mentioned his love for Zcrmatt and particularly for the .\Matterhorn He had been on the mountain some four or five times, having already climbed it some years previously, and during this holiday had already soloed up to the Solvay hut to remind himself of the route and to check conditions.
Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Janet, also a member of the MAM, and to their children, Bridget and Glyn.

From what I now know about David Owen Hughes, a like minded spirit, he would have been up at the bar.

RIP