Alfred Wainwright MBE
Alfred Wainwright was born in the Lancashire town of Blackburn. He was the youngest son of a stonemason and grew up in poverty, mainly due to his fathers' alcoholism. Despite doing well academically Alfred left school aged 13 to support his mother. Bypassing the local tradition of mill work he started an office job for the local Blackburn council. During his time there he studied at night school, gaining qualifications in accountancy, which helped further his working career. His skills as an artist were developing with an interest in cartography and his love for walking grew, sometimes hiking more than 20 miles a day.
Wainwright was aged 23 when he caught his first glimpse of the Lake District. He had saved up for a week’s holiday with his cousin and their first stop was to be Orrest Head near Windermere. It was here his love affair, as he would later refer to it, with the Lakes began, describing it as “magic, a revelation so unexpected that I stood transfixed, unable to believe my eyes ... I had seen landscapes of rural beauty pictured in the local art gallery, but here was no painted canvas: this was real. This was truth...”.
A year later in 1931 he married Ruth Holden, a local mill worker and friend to his sister, in what was by all accounts a strange and loveless coupling. Two years later they would produce a son, Peter.
In 1941 Wainwright got the chance to get closer to his beloved Lake District. Despite the pay cut he incurred Alfred didn’t have to think long about accepting a job offer in the Borough Treasurers Office, Kendal.
Alfred was to stay in Kendal for the rest of his life. Three weeks before his retirement in 1967, his marriage ended when Ruth left him and they divorced not long after.
In 1970 he married his long term friend and walking companion Betty McNally. Alfred Wainwright died in 1991 of a heart attack and it was Betty who carried his ashes to his final resting place, Innominate Tarn atop of Haystacks.
An interesting article printed in the Independent suggests a troubled mind behind the genius we know and love.
