Ted Moss (1907-1987)

Myyrddyn has asked me to write something about my father who appears in Part 7 of his blog on Welsh Hill Lists. As is often the case there are things he never told me and now it is too late to ask him.

Edward Moss, usually known as Ted, was born in Eccles in 1907. He went to Eccles Grammar School from 1916 to 1918 followed by Manchester Grammar School (Rooke Corbett had been there earlier) leaving in 1925; he was University material, but did not go as family support was not forthcoming. Instead he worked as a lab assistant at Shirley Institute, the textile research centre in Didsbury and went to night school at Manchester Tech eventually getting a degree in Chemistry at London University as an external student in 1932. His mathematics was also good and this seemed to run in the family as his great grandfather had published a book in 1848, “Cotton Manufacturers, Managers and Spinners New Pocket Guide” in which he extolled the use of the metric system.

In the war he was in a reserved occupation researching combat clothing among other things. He rose to head of the Mechanical Finishing Department at Shirley Institute but was made redundant in 1966 after the Conservatives had financed a new building but without making provision for its maintenance. He rejected teaching and without any formal training became a medical statistician in the Industrial Health Department at Manchester University. There he advised the researchers and gave lectures to industrial health officers; he was kept on after reaching 65 for a number of years.

In the late1920’s he walked in the Peak District and with friends started rock climbing learning from books until they met other climbers. He climbed in Scotland and on one occasion above Sligachan he met the ghillie John McKenzie who had been with Collie and after whom Sgurr MhicCoinnich was named. He had several visits to the Alps and among other mountains climbed Mont Blanc, but bad weather denied him the Matterhorn; the alpine ascents were guideless.

In 1930 he was elected to the Rucksack Club and he was devoted to it for the rest of his life. He was Outdoor Organiser for 10 years and I recall helping him compile a league table of meet attenders at the end of each year. I remember going on early meets such as the annual summer climbing meet at Cratcliffe and in particular the dinner meets on Kinder the day after the Rucksack Club Dinner which always started with coffee at Tunstead. In 1953 John Hunt was guest of honour at the dinner and my father pointed him out as he strode past the window. My brother Edward and I sprinted after him to get his autograph. In 1955 Neil Mather came round one evening before leaving for Kangchenjunga and I distinctly remember my younger brother asking for his autograph “in case you don’t come back”. Neil held the altitude record on Kangchenjunga for a day before George Band and Joe Brown summitted. Ted’s advice was often sought, for example when Ted Dance was contemplating a continuous Lakes 25’s. His technical expertise was used when he designed a new knot for the Piggott stretcher and he was on the ropes committee of the British Standards Institute. In 1931 he was on an early mountain rescue involving Craig yr Ysfa and was an extra in a film about mountain rescue featuring a supposed accident on Tryfan which was actually filmed on the Carneddau. He was President of the Rucksack Club for 1958 and 1959.

I have been asked if Ted was on the Kinder mass trespass. I don’t think so. The Rucksack Club members in those days were mainly professional gentlemen, some of whom knew landowners. I gathered that outside the grouse shooting season there were understandings with some of them and through them, their gamekeepers. The Club was anxious not to jeopardise existing arrangements. Of course, that did not stop discreet trespassing in other parts and the illicit use of the shooting cabins.

Ted’s interest in lists must have started in the early 1930’s because he added a few 25’s to Corbett’s list in 1933. I assume he met Rooke Corbett, because he was also in the Rucksack Club, but he never mentioned it to me and I was remiss in never asking. Between then and 1951 he was busy ticking not just 2,000’s but also county tops. This was tolerated by his wife Deborah whom he married in 1936; she told me she first called him a bugger half way up Arrowhead ridge on Great Gable, where I believe there’s a big step across a gap. On holiday when my brother and I were young, he would leave the family to peakbag and I remember waiting for him to return on one occasion on a Pennine pass when we were on the way to the NE coast. I recall an Easter when he went to Devon with his bicycle by train to do Yes Tor and High Willhays. During the War the family car, a Morris 8 tourer, was up on bricks and his peak bagging was done by train and bike.

By the time he had completed the 2,000’s of England and Wales, and the County Tops, I was old enough to walk with him and I remember going up Snowdon, Tryfan and the Glyders. He also showed me how to find the top of Kinder Scout; from the Downfall, up the Kinder River, past Kinder Gates, turn off to find the Stockport Water Works rain gauge, resist temptation and use it as an attack point for the top. On a holiday in the Lakes we parked at Gatescarth, walked over Scarth gap, down into Ennerdale and up to Pillar Rock. He led me up the Old West Route and we descended by Slab and Notch, so I had ticked Pillar Rock almost as soon as I started peak bagging. Unfortunately he was then in bed with lumbago; back trouble seems to be a family problem and he can’t have been helped by Digging for Victory in his allotment. This was the last time he rock climbed and his walking was much curtailed after that, though his holidays with Deborah were usually in hilly areas. In 1981 he visited his last 2,000, Twmpa (Lord Hereford’s Knob), from Gospel Pass. As he stated in one of his Rucksack Club articles he then concentrated more on collecting stamps with pictures of mountains on them and also specialised in Gibraltar.

So my brother and I were both brought up to the mountains. We both worked as students at CHA guest houses leading walks, even in the Lakes in winter, with no formal training at all. Ted once came up to Seatoller to support the two of us as we did the Lakeland Seven from there.

His lists and articles together with a brief history of them can be found at

http://www.cantab.net/users/remus