James Alfred Ewing

A Tragic Accident

The money for this latest expansion came as the result of a tragic accident. In 1898, Ewing took his wife and children to Switzerland for a mountaineering holiday with the Hopkinson family. John Hopkinson, who had read mathematics at Cambridge was Professor of Electrical Engineering at King's College London, and was held in high regard.

All five of the Hopkinson brothers were members of the Alpine Club and soon initiated Ewing into the sport of rock climbing. On 27 August, John Hopkinson set out with his son Jack and two of his three daughters to climb. Ewing decided not to go with them as he was feeling a little stiff after his first real climb the previous day. The party never returned, being found the next morning, all four bodies roped together in a valley five hundred feet below the summit.