John Oakley Maund

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John Oakley Maund (born May 26, 1846 in Laverstock, Wiltshire, † June 10, 1902 in Lanzi near Pisa ) was an English banker , entrepreneur, mountaineer and hunter .

He was the son of Herbert Maund and married in July 1867 (then as Lieutenant) Mary Emily Baring, the daughter of longtime Member of Parliament and Lord Treasurer Major Henry Bingham Baring .

climber

Les Droites (far right), Aiguille du Dru (far left) and Aiguille Verte (center)

John Oakley Maund is one of the great climber personalities of the so-called "golden years" of alpinism in the second half of the 19th century.

  • 3rd to 5th August 1874: Third attempt to climb the main summit of the Meije ( Massif des Écrins in the Dauphiné Alps ) over the north ridge with the guides Jean Martin and Johann Jaun had to be canceled the next day shortly before the finish due to bad weather, but it was considered quite feasible designated.

In 1876 he achieved three first ascent in the Montblanc massif alone within eight days:

  • July 31, 1876: Cordier-Couloir in the north face of the 4,122 m high Aiguille Verte in the Montblanc massif with Thomas Middlemore, Henri Cordier and the guides Jakob Anderegg , Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun
  • 4th August 1876: Cordier route on the north face of Les Courtes (next to Aiguille Verte and Les Droites in the Montblanc massif) with Thomas Middlemore, Henri Cordier and the guides Jakob Anderegg, Andreas Maurer and Johann Jaun.
  • August 7th, 1876: First ascent of the eastern summit of Les Droites (in the Montblanc massif, lowest 4000m in the Alps), with Thomas Middlemore, Henri Cordier and the guides Jakob Anderegg, Johann Jaun the Elder. J. and Andreas Maurer.
Eiger north-east and north-west face, top left Mittellegigrat

Other tours:

Entrepreneur

Several sources indicate that John Oakley Maund played an entrepreneurial role in the turbulent times of British development of the southern part of Africa in what would later become Rhodesia and Zimbabwe:

  • In June 1889, about 5 months before the “ British South Africa Company ”, the “Exploring Company Limited” was founded in London and held a quarter of the shares in the Rudd-Rhodes concession. John Oakley Maund sat on the board of directors alongside famous names like Alfred Beit , Cecil Rhodes , George Cawston and Lord Gifford . The main concrete objective was the development of the Bechuana Protectorate and the countries to the north.
  • In December 1896 the second general meeting of the British West Chartered Company took place under the chairmanship of John Oakley Maund, the summarized transcript of which shows that the company was active in the mining business of southern Africa and advocated the rapid extension of the Bechuanaland railway north.

Hunter

Maund belonged to the English high society and liked to go hunting in Au (Vorarlberg) in the rear of the Bregenz Forest . In 1888 he leased the cooperative hunt from Au and finally the entire hunt in the rear Bregenzerwald with the forest areas from Schoppernau, Hopfreben and Schröcken to Baad in the Kleiner Walsertal .

Villa Maund from the west, in front of the Heiterberg

In the 1890s he bought a secluded, beautifully situated building site in the municipality of Schoppernau , Hopfreben on the foothills of the Ünschenberg Alp and had a hunting villa built on it in the English country house style, which is still known today as Villa Maund . The English architect (and painter, poet, craftsman, engineer and printer) William Morris had built two similar looking houses in the British-Scottish cottage style for Maund in Weggis on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland before 1888 . After the topping-out ceremony in 1892, the first hunting party was able to use the villa in 1895.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lieutenant John Oakley Maund on thepeerage.com , accessed August 16, 2015.
  2. ↑ Article "La montagne c'est pointu" in the French mountaineering blog chaps.canalblog french
  3. ^ Henry Gale Gotch: Les tentatives d'ascension à la Meje entre 1870 et 1877 From the Alpine Club Journal of 1877/78 in the French mountaineering blog chaps.canalblog (PDF; 58 kB) in French
  4. ↑ a b Yves Ballu: Les alpinistes , Glénat, 1997
  5. ↑ see literature Eric Rosenthal: Rhodesian Jewry and its Story
  6. ↑ South Africa Magazine, December 19, 1896
  7. ↑ Maund as a hunter on the homepage of Villa Maund Villamaund ( Memento from February 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Maund, John Oakley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maund, JO
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English banker, mountaineer and hunter
DATE OF BIRTH 19th century
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1902
Place of death Lanzi near Pisa