OBITUARY

1. JOAN TOWNEND
2. WILLIAM E. MURPHY

 

 

IT would be failing in my duty if, as Editor of the Journal, I did not offer my homage to the late Joan Townend. 1 came in touch with her in connection with my work as the Superintendent, Royal (now Indian) Botanic Garden, Calcutta, from 1938. I first met her husband Mr. H. P. V. Townend in connection with my official work, as he was then one of the top-ranking senior members of the Indian Civil Service in undivided Bengal. They were then living in the old historic Commissioner's House at Chinsura (Chandarnagar), West Bengal, on the banks of the Ganges near Calcutta. I used to be consulted by Mrs. Townend in connection with her interest in Sikkim vegetation and for planning and improving the large garden of this house and thus came in close contact with Mrs. Townend. She was a very kind-hearted lady and took keen interest in the Indian families. She was particularly sympathetic to the poor families and did much for their welfare as she did for those of her special favourites—the Sherpas of Darjeeling. Her name was a household word among the Sherpas. We often met also during my work at the Lloyd Botanic Garden, Darjeeling, as her special interest lay in the alpine plants, especially Rhododendrons, Gentianas, Saxifragas, Primulas, Anemones, Potentials, Meconopsis, Androsace, Pedicularis and a host of others. This was her hobby like the famous naturalist Captain Kingdon-Ward, another very close friend of ours.

Thus our acquaintance soon ripened into great intimacy, and it was Mrs. Townend and Mr. Fawcus who made me interested in the activities of the Himalayan Club of which I became a member as early as 1940.

Percy Brown's book—Tours in Sikkim, revised and edited by Joan Townend—was then the only authentic book which served, and still serves, as a good guide to all mountaineers in the Sikkim Himalaya. This book is also of special interest to me and all students of Natural History. She took special interest also in the Natural History Museum of Darjeeling and did much to develop this small but very useful museum containing a good representative collection and illustrations of animals, birds and reptiles, butterflies and many other interesting objects of the Darjeeling and Sikkim forests, all well displayed in this museum which attracts visitors from many parts of India and abroad. She was also associated with the journal of the Darjeelimg Natural History Museum. She had a great interest in birds and was a good friend of Dr. S. C. Law, the well-known ornithologist of India, and often visited his aviary and that of the zoological garden when Dr. Law was then President and myself a memher of the garden committee.

Her collection of plants during her mountaineering tours in Sikkim, as mentioned by Mr. Fawcus, was presented to me determination and incorporation in the famous herbarium of the Indian, then Royal, Botanic Garden, Calcutta.

In the summer of 1963 she came to see me at nry invitation in a London hotel during my visit to the U.K. She had breakfast with me and we had a long discussion about the Himalayan Club and the Journal. In fact, she gave me some good suggestions for editing the journal and making the journal more interesting to all lovers of Sikkim Himalaya, its flora, fauna and people. Her information about Sikkim and particularly Sikkim Rhododendrons stood me in good stead in the preparation of my voluminous book, Plants of Darjeeling and Sikkim Himalaya, the first volume of which has been reviewed in this issue of the Journal.

From her last letter to me before her death it was clear that she was feeling the burden of her age while staying with one her daughters in London. An active, hardy and independent lady as she was, she did not like dependence on even her own devoted daughter, but, in spite of ill health, she was still full of cheer jubilant about her glorious achievement in the climbing of Sikkim snows and was happy about what she did for the Club. May her soul rest in peace!

K. Biswas

V. S. Risoe writes :

No record of Joan Townend's activities would be complete without mentioning Percy Brown's Tours in Sikkim which she revised and edited in 1934. This little guide-book has always been an essential part of the equipment of the travelled in Sikkim, and no member of the Himalayan Club in pre-war days was without his or her copy.

I only came to know Joan Townend personally in recent years after she had settled in London and she assisted with great enthusiasm in the organization of the first post-war Himalayan Club Reunion which was held in 1961.

L. R. Fawcus writes:

Joan Townend and I did a good deal of trekking in the Himalayas and in the course of our two longest trips, one to Gyantse and the other to the top of the Guicha La, I learned to appreciate not only her physical endurance but also the capacity of organization which made for the success of our bandobdst from the time we arranged our transport and packed our stores in Darjeeling till the time arrived for unpacking what was left when we reached Darjeeling again. What an excellent Quartermaster she would have made!

She knew a good deal about the birds and animals which we saw. I remember her spotting a wolf stalking a baby yak in a nullah on the way to Gyantse, also the ‘pikas' or mouse-hares which amused us by popping in and out of their burrows by the side of our trail.

Evenings in camp passed quickly beside a good fire—often of yak-dung—and it was very often Joan who initiated the conversation by reading from a pocket Browning which she carried. I remember that sections of Pip pa Passes were a frequent choice and she was not the only lover of Browning to put that poem very high. Sometimes we managed a sing-song; On the Road to Mandalay was I think her favourite choice.

Joan remained an indomitable traveller as long as she was able. I remember her coming to San Francisco in the course of a cruise and spending two or three days here—enough time for her to visit Muir Woods and to see the giant redwoods there.

After her return to England I had not the opportunity to see much of her but I remember my wife and I once went to tea with her at the Travellers Club. After that I came to San Francisco to live here but we still kept up a fairly regular correspondence and it was a great shock to hear of her death after a friendship of over forty years.

C. E. J. Crawford writes:

With the untimely death of Mrs. Townend on November 20, 1966, the Club has lost a firm friend, and one held in affection by a generation of Himalayan mountaineers.

Joan Townend was elected to the Himalayan Club in 1933, being the second of its lady members. She was very soon active in the Club's Eastern Section, as it was at that time, succeeding in that year L. R. Fawcus as Honorary Secretary ; and thereafter, until she and her husband retired from India in 1942, was, apart from a short visit to New Zealand in 1940, at the centre of the Club's activities in Calcutta. At the same time she served for seven years on the Committee of the Club and was a Vice- President in 1939-40.

There can be few Club members of those years who will not recollect with pleasure and gratitude the lectures and dinners which she arranged in the Lawn House of the United Services Club in Chowringhee, enabling members to meet visiting expeditions from all parts of the world. To all of these who passed through Calcutta she gave hospitality and unstinting help over their arrangements. It was largely due to her enthusiasm and powers of organization that the Eastern Section of the Club throve to such a remarkable degree in those pre-war years.

Touring in Sikkim was becoming popular in the early thirties, and Joan Townend's passion for the Himalayas led her, though not to high peaks, to some notable treks in little known northeastern Sikkim. In 1935, accompanied by two other ladies, she travelled up the Jha Chu Valley to the base of the Sebu La ; then skirting the slopes of Kangchenjunga at altitudes of from 15,000 to 17,000 feet made her way round to the Gordamah Lake, thence to the Cho Lhamo there joining the route over the Donkhya La and so down to Mome Samdong. This journey, and the earlier reconnoitring of Gourlay and others, enabled sites to be fixed for the Club Huts (alas, no more!) which were shortly after erected at Jha Chu and Mome Samdong, linking up for travellers the Lachen and Lachung Valleys. Other journeys were made in the following year in which she crossed the Borum La between these valleys and explored the area at the head of the Sebu Chu.

Much of Joan's interest centred round the Sherpas. ‘Towney memsahib' was concerned with them as people, for their livelihood and welfare, and at the same time strove to see that the standard of ' Club Porters' was kept high. Himalayan Club Chit Books were issued to each Sherpa, and a Porter's Register compiled. This Register was a work of loving care, for it was compiled in her own hand, with a photograph and a climbing record of each man.

The war years brought an end temporarily to Himalayan travel, and to our climbing visitors and in 1942 it was possible in the Eastern Section to arrange only one lecture. The Honorary Secretary did not fail us then for she gave the lecture herself, shortly before leaving India, on ⁶ The Mountains of New Zealand ' showing some fine slides.

Joan Townend's connection with the Club was not wholly severed after returning to England as she was Assistant Editor of the Journal from 1947 to 1949. In her later years she was unable to travel much and was rarely seen though she was happily able to attend two of the Club Reunions in London.

Her death is a sad loss, and many of us who love the Himalayas have reason to be grateful to her for her personal kindness and encouragement to travel in Sikkim in the good days when that was possible.

 

 

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Those who knew Bill Murphy will remember him as a kindly and self-effacing man with a delightful sense of humour.

Bill joined the Club in 1940. When circumstances led in 1947 to the Club's Headquarters being transferred from Delhi to Calcutta, he took over the post of Honorary Secretary. His first and prior job was that of preparing a new Members' List; a time- consuming one, as any Club Secretary will know, for so many had lost touch with the Club over the war years, and the Club with them. It was largely through his efforts that ' missing' members were traced, and the Roll completed and brought up to date in 1949.

Bill served on the Club Committee until 1953 when he retired from India. For the last two years he continued as Equipment Officer on a 'make do and mend' basis until new equipment could be imported. This again demanded much of his spare time.

The loss of his son, Peter, in 1951 was a heavy blow, but he was always ready to help in Club affairs and nothing was too much trouble. He was a grand colleague.

C. E. J. Crawford

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