Fell & Rock Climbing Club

The club had been originally proposed by John Wilson Robinson about 1887, approximately when rock climbing began as a sport in England.

Robinson, owner of a farm and, later, an estate agent's business in Keswick, climbed with Walter Parry Haskett Smith, generally acknowledged as the father of rock climbing in Great Britain, and it was Robinson – in 1885 - who introduced the use of the alpine rope in the Lake District.

Alluding to these, Abraham commented at the first annual dinner:[2] A plaque commemorating members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club who died in World War I is set on the summit rock of Great Gable; an annual memorial service is held there on Remembrance Sunday.

[3] The club bought 3,000 acres of land including Great Gable and donated it to the National Trust in memory of these members, and the plaque was dedicated on Whit Sunday 1924 by Geoffrey Winthrop Young in front of 500 people.

[4] The bronze memorial, weighing 70 kg, was removed in July 2013 and a replacement, with spelling errors corrected, was installed by Royal Engineers in October 2013.

Photograph from Owen Glynne Jones 's book, Rock-climbing in the English Lake District
The replacement war memorial on Great Gable
The original memorial plaque on Great Gable in memory of members of the club who died in 1914 - 18