Obituary

Clive Charles Mitchell
23 May 1930 - 6 April 2020

Obituary by by Martin & Jan Haydon

We first met Clive on his and our first AAC tour in the Hohe Tauern, August 1974. On that wonderful two-week introduction to the Alps, under the leadership of Bryan Durrant, we climbed six mountains including Austria’s sixth highest summit, the Großvenediger 3674m. As a group of six we bonded instantly and subsequently had many reunions, including a weekend in Snowdonia climbing a rather icy Crib Goch, Grib Y Dysgl and Snowdon. This was followed with Club meets, AGM weekends and Club lectures in London. We have fond memories of our holiday on the 1994 Kandersteg Alpine Meet, where with Clive we did one particularly long high traverse, ascending the First and Stand, the two highest summits above the village.

Clive lived in Walthamstow with his mother and had a close friendship with Club members, Olive and David Aspen whom he visited often. Clive visited us in Solihull a number of times. He enjoyed travelling and especially Brussels, and had a love of classical architecture and paintings. He was an enthusiastic member of the Laurel and Hardy Fan Club. Clive had a cheeky sense of humour and was always the optimist.

Using his skills as a former technical magazine editor, he assisted myself and AAC newsletter editors with the copy reading for many years, until after a fall he went to live at nursing home St Ives Lodge in Chingford. Last year we visited Clive on the hottest day of year, enjoying a fish and chips dinner at Sam’s, his favourite restaurant. Clive's favourite piece of music was Beethoven's Emperor piano concerto and on that first tour, would whistle it whilst we did the long descent from the Rudolfshütte. He was a very interesting and easy person to talk with, had a superb memory (remembering every detail about our first holiday) and was an excellent mountain companion. Clive remained a bachelor, and his days in the Army stayed with him, remarking last year, “It’s like being back in the army, you just do as you are told”. He appeared fit and well, still retaining his full head of hair and looking considerably younger than 89.

He died just short of his 90th birthday in Whipps Cross hospital of Covid-19 and will be sadly missed.

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