The Scafell tragedy of 1903 Broadrick, Jupp, Garrett, and Ridsdale.

Like myself, walkers of the Lakeland fells begin out of a desire for fresh air, peace from the routine and pressures of work, pure exercise and not least, to test oneself in the face of nature. It is not really a sense of the history of a place or area that initially drives you to walk the fells or climb the rock faces, yet you cannot do so without beginning to gain some knowledge of the events that shaped the landscape and the people who worked the land, or enjoyed their own quest for adventure. Some events are known only to local people and a select few, yet others are known by a much broader audience.
One such event was the tragedy of 21 September 1903 when four ground breaking climbers, R. W. Broadrick, H. L. Jupp, A. E. W. Garrett and S. Ridsdale, set out to climb the rock faces of Scafell which tragically ended in the death of all four climbers. It is not my intention to enter into any great detail the reasons why this came about, many other sites go into this and I am a walker not a climber. 
The brief circumstances are they met another party of climbers near Lord's Rake and departed from them at around 2.30pm, each party doing separate climbs. The other party returned back along the rake at around 5.40pm and found all four climbers roped together at the foot of the rock-face, Broadrick, Jupp and Garrett were already dead. Ridsdale, although seriously injured was imploring the others to look after his colleagues, unaware they were dead. One of the other parties raced for help and on returning at around 8.30pm they managed to get Ridsdale down to the valley by 03.30am. They reached the valley floor and Ridsdale was still alive, yet by the time they got to the Wasdale Hotel he had passed away. That is a time span of nearly 10 hours between knowledge of the incident to recovery of the injured party and that is only to the valley floor.
 From my experience, in today's modern age, from discovery a winch helicopter would be on the scene within 45 minutes and the injured would be at Hensingham Hospital (Whitehaven) within 10 minutes of scene evacuation, or 15 minutes to Carlisle, or 40 minutes to Newcastle for more specialist accident treatment. How times change
The other bodies were recovered the following day and the inquest held on 23 September (a modern inquest would be at least one year, if not approaching two).

Wasdale Head with Great Gable at it's head, St. Olaf's church in the foreground trees.

Many walkers search out the cross while at the base of Lord's Rake, knowing of this iconic monument, mentioned in many reports on the internet and books. There are also references and images of the Grave within St Olaf's Church near the valley head.

St Olaf's Church, Wasdale Head (note the shadow of the entrance gate off the lane).

Above is the church with the first grave being the one containing three of the climbers who fell. It was a tradition to be buried where one fell, not unlike The Alps, Himalayas or war graves.

The grave

Inscription

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

 HENRY L. JUPP SECOND SON OF

CHARLES JUPP OF CROYDON

AGED 29

ALSO OF ALGERNON E. W. GARRETT

ONLY SON OF THE LATE

COMMANDER E. GARRETT R. N.

(OF DEVONSHIRE) AGED 27

ALSO OF STANLEY RIDSDALE

SECOND SON OF

ALFRED RIDSDALE OF KEW GARDENS

AGED 26.

WHO LOST THEIR LIVES ON SCAWFELL

SEPT. 21ST 1903.

"ONE MOMENT STOOD THEY AS THE ANGELS STAND

HIGH IN THE STAINLESS IMMINENCE OF AIR

THE NEXT THEY WERE NOT, TO THEIR

FATHERLAND TRANSLATED UNAWARE"

The above grave quotation is the second verse of a poem titled,'On a Grave at Grindelwald', by Frederic William Henry Myers (1843–1901). The full poem is (with plural replacing singular): 

HERE let us leave him; for his shroud the snow,

  For funeral lamps he has the planets seven,

For a great sign the icy stair shall go

  Between the heights to heaven.

 

One moment stood he as the angels stand,

  High in the stainless eminence of air;

The next, he was not, to his fatherland

  Translated unaware.

The rock face before the Lord's Rake ascent going to the right (difficult to make out but the cross is at the end of my dogs tail

The cross inscribed into the rock face

The carved initials to the right of the cross

Lord's Rake route is an inevitable and famous route onto this second highest fell in England. Many of those walkers are aware of the tragedy from literature on the internet or guide books bought on Lakeland walking routes. Those that are inevitably look for the cross at the base of the rake, carved into the rock face in tribute to the four fallen climbers who lost their lives on that fateful day.

Lord's Rake

I decided to post this account as one part of the event is largely unknown. As stated above, the incident, memorial cross at the base of Lord's Rake and the grave in Wasdale are all well known, to greater or lesser degrees. The one article missing from the story is that of Broadrick. He was an individual from Windermere and the family had his body returned for burial there. The only information I can find referring to his burial site is a local newspaper recognising the centenary in 2003, yet any commemoration appears to have only been held at Wasdale.

St Mary's church, Windermere.

Richard W. Broadrick's Grave

The grave inscription

The Broadrick family graves, R. W. Broadrick is the second right.

It seemed an appropriate tribute to have at least one site on the internet where all four climbers can be commemorated next to each other, albeit in photographs on an internet page. They died together, let them at least (albeit visually) Rest In Peace together, finally.

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**I have previously published this account, and other new material, for public knowledge. I did so in the expectation that anyone wishing to further expand that public knowledge would do so by highlighting this original account, and then adding new information they discover themselves. Sadly I am aware of one site that has repeated a large section of an account of another all but forgotten lakeland memorial to two boys that drowned and making out it was new, despite his following my many new lakes history accounts. I was asked by a person writing a book for Wasdale MRT for the generation of funds to assist that worthy cause. I gladly agreed to its use and he stated he would reference my original account. Such a stance by the latter is an honourable one; I hope the former person reflects on his conduct and no longer copies my work and then makes out he has found a new lakes history; that is dishonourable and diminishes him.**

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