Tom Longstaff

Tom Longstaff was the son of Alexander Longstaff, the man who played a large part in Captain Scott’s Antarctic Expedition, thanks to a £25,000 donation to the National Geographical Society. Tom Longstaff was educated at Eton and then Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in art and medicine. His medical experience was gained at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London.

As a mountaineer, Longstaff joined the Alpine Club in 1900 and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in 1902, and between 1903-10 embarked on five great expeditions, which led to him contributing many detailed maps to the RGS. At the start of World War I, Longstaff was commissioned into the Hampshires (Royal Hampshire Regiment) and served in India.

Between 1921-34 Longstaff was involved in seven major expeditions to Spitsbergen, the Himalayas, Greenland (three times), and Baffin Land, including being a member of Charles Granville Bruce’s Everest expedition in 1922. Longstaff was probably the most experienced of all Himalayan climbers within the group, having led his first Himalayan expedition in 1905. He was the official medical officer on Bruce’s expedition, but fell ill and many of his duties were carried out by Arthur Wakefield.

Longstaff was awarded the Founder’ Medal by the RGS in 1928, and between 1930-37 was honorary secretary, and then vice-president, of the Society. At the outbreak of World War II, Longstaff served for two years with the 13th Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps as an infantry lieutenant, before being invalided out in 1941. He then went on holiday to Western Ross in the north-west highlands of Scotland and ended up making it his new home.

Longstaff was elected president of the Alpine Club in 1947, and in 1950 published his book This Is My Voyage, which told of his travels. In total Tom Longstaff went on 20 expeditions to the Alps, six to the Himalayas, five to the Arctic, two to the Rocky Mountains and Alaska, and one to the Caucasus.