NEXT month marks the birthday of British mountaineer Edward Whymper. Famous for being the first man to lead an ascent to the summit of the Matterhorn and described as the “Robespierre of mountaineering,” Whymper later took up residence in Southend – in fact it was while living in the town that he met his wife and settled into a far more grounded chapter of his life.

Whymper was born on April 27, 1840 in Lambeth and went on to become a wood engraver and illustrator. He fell in love with mountaineering - then regarded as an extreme and dangerous pursuit- when he was first sent to Switzerland in 1860 to sketch Alpine scenes for a publisher.

In July 1865 - after eight failed attempts - he finally reached the summit of the Matterhorn, which straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy. The feat would see him become one of the foremost climbers of the golden age of British mountaineering.

The race to the top of the Matterhorn – also known as Mt Cervino – was fierce. With its four faces and distinct jagged ‘tooth’ shape, the Matterhorn, by this time, was the only famous 4,000 metre peak to remain unconquered. Known as the ‘mountain of mountains’ it soars 4,478m into the sky.

Whymper and his expedition only just beat a team of Italian climbers to the summit. The Italians were 1,250 ft below the top when Whymper and co-climber Michel Croz first summited. To crow over his rivals Whymper is said to have rather unsportingly shouted at the Italian team from the top and hurled rocks to make a clatter. “The Italians turned and fled,” Whymper later wrote.

Tragedy overshadowed Whymper’s 1865 expedition, however. On the way down to their base at Zermatt, the most inexperienced climber, Douglas Hadow, lost his footing and he and three other men – Croz, Lord Francis Douglas and the Revd Charles Hudson – fell to their deaths after a climbing rope snapped.

The disaster hit the headlines in the press amid rumours of sabotage and rope-cutting. Although an inquest found no truth in the rumours, Whymper faced criticism over the tragedy. It was said he never got over the pain of losing his team-mates on the fateful climb.

Although he still spent time in the Alps, Whymper rarely climbed there again. In 1871 he published a book documenting his Matterhorn climbs called Scrambles Amongst the Alps.

Whymper later embarked on scientific expeditions to the Rockies and the Andes. He made the first recorded ascents of the Ecuadorian peaks Chimborazo and Cotopaxi .

Whymper soon wanted a rest from travelling and he found it in the fresh sea air of Southend. He rented a lodging house at 4 Cliff Town Parade. Apparently Whymper’s landlady Louisa Wright and her family lived in the basement of the property, while Whymper lived on the top floor. Seeking some peace and solace he insisted the intervening floors were kept vacant.

It was said he maintained a meagre existence here, with hardly a scrap of furniture and using a mattress kept rolled up on the floor as his bed.

When his landlady’s niece Edith Lewin visited from London, the pair fell in love. They married in Forest Gate two days before Whymper’s 66th birthday.

Their month-long honeymoon was spent sightseeing in the Alps and according to reports, Whymper taught his new bride how to use an ice-axe.

When they returned to England the couple settled in Teddington where they welcomed a daughter, Ethel, who also became a mountaineer. The couple divorced in 1910. Whymper, said to have been distraught at the end of his marriage, died a year later on September 16, 1911, in Chamonix, having fallen ill there on a visit.

The first woman to ever scale the Matterhorn did so just six years after Whymper. Lucy Walker (1836-1916) from Liverpool reached the top wearing a long flannel skirt befitting of a Victorian lady. The news of her achievement spread like wildfire across the world.

Seventy eight years after Whymper’s ascent of Matterhorn - on May 29, 1953 - New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to summit the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest.

Just six months later Hillary was on his way to rather less exotic Southend. In November 1953 the Southend Standard carried the headline “Everest hero will give Southend talk”. Sir Edmund was to give a lecture on “Ascent of Everest” at the Southend’s Ritz cinema on December 13.

He was to be accompanied on stage by George Low, another member of the Everest expedition. The newspaper report made one thing clear:

“Just one thing”, it read, “Sir Edmund calls it an ascent because no one can ever “conquer” a mountain.”

As for Whymper, his poignant quote about mountaineering has become famous amongst climbers: “Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime.

“Do nothing in haste, look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end.”