Norman (Plum) Worrall 1919-2006 (KMC: 0-62)
|
Norman Worrall (Plum to us all) died on 23rd June 2006, just after his 87th Birthday.
He was a very special person, the likes of whom we will never see again.
He was invalided out of the Army after a very traumatic
experience at Dunkirk, where he spent his 21st birthday
on the beach. This meant he was then available to be a
founder member of our Club.
I was lucky enough to meet Plum and Robbie in 1946 I
was camping behind Windgather when they appeared
and pitched their tent next to mine. I was invited to join
them for a brew made from some very dubious looking
water that was the start of my friendship with them.
When Robbie was diagnosed with terminal cancer and
was discharged from Christies with only 10 days to live,
Plum adapted his old van and took her to the North of
Norway, feeding her Carrot and Cabbage juice, and
brown sugar she lived another 10 years.
They settled in Aviemore where Plum worked at
Glenmore Lodge his expertise and patience must
have been invaluable.
|
Plum Worrall, Founder Member, circa 1953 (with pipe).
|
|
Some time after Robbie's death, Plum turned up at my
house in Slaidburn and stayed for several days talking
about old times, and telling me about the new lady in his life, Nan, whom he had met in an
M/c launderette. Again, he showed his ability to share his love of the mountains, and with
his encouragement, Nan soon learnt to Ski and walk in the mountains.
The Oldies amongst us in the KMC have our own memories, and Len told me some of his
on one trip to the Berwyns on Len's old lorry, it broke down at Lostock Gralam the
Sunday night. The party numbered 15, but between them they couldn't raise the fare to
M/c. Plum came up with an idea they waited until next morning, and brought Workmen's
tickets at a vastly reduced sum which he knew were available to parties of 8 or more
workmen. The Ticket collector at Central Station was amazed by this motley looking
bunch of so-called workmen in nailed boots.
Plum is survived by Nan (88).
Pat Holt.
Some Plum Stories
We're going back 60 years for these...
Plum (because he was a plumber in off-piste life) Worrall was a big man with feet to
match size 12s. When you couldn't get decent boots in England he went to a boot-
maker's shop in Austria for a pair, exhausting the proprietor and his stock in the search for
a fit. Eventually, the exasperated man took Plum outside and pointed up at the symbolic
trade sign, a gigantic boot three feet long. "That's what you need", he said, "but we've only
got one". Incredibly, Plum managed to get a pair of Scottish Dancing pumps made so he
could indulge in another of his passions. He was surprisingly light on his feet...
During the war, when primus stoves were unavailable, Plum would take the blowlamp
from his toolkit out at weekends and would brew up, holding the Dixie of water in one
hand, the blowlamp in the other, while carrying on a conversation at the same time.
"Where are we going tomorrow?" asked one of his acolytes. "Over there" said Plum,
describing an arc with the blowlamp, and burning an arc-shaped hole in the tent.
He was an original thinker and it's mainly due to him that the KMC is a mixed club (he
wanted his wife Robbie to be part of it) and from the outset has accepted and encouraged
beginners, or Graduating Members, as they were then called. Both of these provisions
were unusual, if not unique, in mountaineering at that time. He and Robbie threw open the
front room of their house in South Grove, C-on-M on Friday nights (not Thursdays,
people had to work on Saturday mornings then) to all members and potential members.
Robbie provided a steady supply of tea and toast as Plum elaborated on plans for the
weekend. For the inspiration of the visitors, Plum had painted a vista of the Alps right
across one wall, with a foreground of a Peak District dry-stone wall. Never doing anything
by halves, he had gone into painting in a big way, studying at night classes. He went
through what he called his knife and fork period, applying paint with a palette knife and
putting the texture in with a fork. He was so impressed with Edmond Hillary's achievement
on Everest that when the explorer came to lecture at the Free Trade Hall, Plum went
backstage and presented him with a large painting of the Everest massif, whether he
wanted it or not. His skill increased as he persevered, and painting and drawing the
Scottish landscape gave him life-long satisfaction. He was drawing when Neville
Macmillan visited him in the nursing home where he ended his days.
He took up photography. Just after the war you could get boxes of large-size ex-
government printing paper and, not wanting to cut it down, all his prints were 20"x16" from
the word go, and spread all over the house to dry.
He was made the representative for Graduating Members and I think it is fair to say that
nobody has put as much effort into the job of encouraging newcomers to walk, climb and
ski. I was one of them. When he moved to Aviemore and became a qualified ski instructor,
he was picked to give Prince Charles his initial instruction. I'd give a lot to have been a fly
on the slope during that confrontation.
Back at home and at work, during the war, a client asked him to repair some minor bomb
damage to his roof and gave Plum the key while he went to work. Plum was in the loft,
inspecting the damage when, he said," Nobody told me he had an indoor aerial". Plum
tripped over it and measured his length, breaking through the bedroom ceiling. He dashed
home, gathered a bucket of plaster and a bucket of whitewash and returned to the job on
the tram along Upper Brook Street. He was on the upper deck, and dreaming of plans for
the weekend as usual, when he realised he was passing his stop. Waking from his
reverie, he grabbed both buckets and rushed down the aisle, banging both of them
against the seats and strewing the contents all down the upper deck. He abandoned the
lot and fled. Did the client ever get his roof mended? Plum kept that to himself...
Lack of space is against me and I haven't mentioned his snuffly dog, Rover, who used to
share his sleeping bag , or his reedy voice singing "Strawberry Roan" at KMC gatherings,
or his climbing, walking and skiing adventures, and travels in his battered van,
Wandervogel, but I do recall an unforgettable character who had an enormous influence
on the ideals of the club we have today.
Derek Seddon.
Plum encouraging new member Alan Ebbrell at Burbage.
Plum Worrall
I first had the privilege of meeting Norman (Plum) Worrall as an instructor at Glenmore
Lodge in March 1962 when I attended a snow and ice climbing course. Conditions were
not favourable as there was all this dreadful deep powder snow covering the ice and
creating high avalanche risks on anything steep. Eventually we decided to have a go at
skiing instead. This one day of instruction on the lawn at the back of the Lodge (now re-
contoured) was to be my introduction to a life-time of enjoyment through skiing, to the
detriment of winter mountaineering, although I had many Alpine holidays to follow. Plum
had by then become one of the most highly respected ski instructors in Scotland. Indeed
he was the first British Skier to qualify as an instructor through the Austrian system and
was the first to be employed by Karl Fuchs at his Austrian Ski School in Carr Bridge. He
was a founder member of the British Association of Professional Ski Instructors (which
later became BASI). Even in those days, when skis were scarcely ever less the 200cm in
length, Plum was advocating short skis, at least for learning. In later years, he instructed
mainly for the SYHA.
Plum spoke very highly of his Club, the Karabiner Mountaineering Club, which he had
been instrumental in founding. It was unique at that time in many ways, not least by being
a mixed Club and his first wife, Robbie, was also a central part of it. His confidence in the
way the Club was run and controlled was such that he said he would climb anywhere in
the World with any Full Member, without having previously met them. Little did I know at
that time that I would eventually be privileged to become one of those Members. I was
then living in Middlesbrough and just becoming a regular mountaineer with the Cleveland
Climbing Club. I briefly met Robbie at that time and Plum had spoken of the way he had
cured her of cancer by a radical change of diet, excluding all body-building foods. Sadly,
her remission did not last much longer after that.
When I moved to Manchester in 1963 to undertake research at the Manchester College of
Science and Technology (later to become UMIST and now merged within the University of
Manchester), I was given an introduction to Charlie Park by a mutual friend from the
Cleveland Club. (A colleague at MCoST was one of many who lived in run-down houses
rented out cheaply to students by Plum as a little side business). Charlie went to Canada
very soon after that, but I did start going out with the KMC whenever I could and was just
beginning to feel I was getting to know a few people when I moved back to Liverpool, my
home-town, on what I thought would be a short-term job. I therefore kept up my KMC
Membership, rather than trying to get to know yet another group of local mountaineers. It
was still possible in those days to get on meets mostly using public transport. There were
some very strong all-round mountaineers in the Club at that time and I was conscious of
the privilege I had been given of climbing with them on occasions. As a more modest
mountaineer, I was also conscious of the fact that I would find it very difficult to become a
Full Member, such were the high standards expected of all.
As Plum had become permanently based in Scotland, I do not think I met him again until I
attended a Winter Survival Course at Glenmore Lodge in 1969. For a wide variety of
reasons, this course moved from one disaster to the next. Not the least of these was the
serious avalanche in Coire Cas which engulfed a party, including Plum, who were
practicing ice axe breaking etc. on the steep head wall. Whilst all were dug out alive,
there were some serious injuries. Plum's speciality on these courses was instruction in
building igloos. I never put this experience to the test until I was in Australia and
discovered that it does not work with slushy wet snow (fortunately we had a tent with us).
In these early days at the Lodge, few people had cars to go into Aviemore, so
entertainment was on a DIY basis. Plum was in his element leading sketches and
highland dancing at the weekly Ceilidh. The Pantomime at the KMC Annual Dinner lived
on for many years and I am sure this tradition must have been partly of Plum's founding.
Whilst we only occasionally saw Plum at KMC functions in later years, his attachment to
the Club remained throughout his life. He was sensitive to the fact that Nan was not a part
of the Club in the way that Robbie had been and so he could not expect her to feel at ease
at KMC events. Nevertheless those who regularly visited Scotland got to know her. At
one time she worked as a cleaner at the Cairngorm Shieling and I caused some
consternation amongst the Merseyside Ski Club by asking the ladies to pass on my
regards when they went to the toilet.
The last time I saw Plum was when he was being interviewed by Scottish TV, marking the
decommissioning of the old Cairngorm Chair lift. He was of course part of the history of
Scottish skiing. I recall seeing Plum riding the Chair on numerous occasions with his poor
little dog running up hill underneath. I did try to go and see him last year but he did not
appear to be in when he called and I had heard that, by then, Nan was in a nursing home.
Although there must be many Club Members who never met Plum, I hope that from the
various anecdotes that are being published in the Newsletter they will realise the debt that
the whole Club owes to him. Whilst he was outwardly as hard as nails and somewhat
eccentric, he was safety conscious, a great improviser and had a deep compassion, with a
desire to help others enjoy life. We shall not see the likes of him again.
Alan (L) Jones
Plum Worrall Founder Member
I first met Plum, long before I ever heard of the KMC, on New Years Day 1961 at the
Austrian Ski School in Carr Bridge, where he was an instructor. In fact, Plum gave me my
first ski lesson. It was memorable because of the weather. There was a high pressure
system sitting over the Cairngorms, blue sky, sunshine, not a breath of wind, and over a
foot of snow in the village, it looked wonderful. But the daytime temperature did not rise
above 20ēC; overnight the temperature had dropped to 25ēC. None of the buses, for
taking skiers to the ski slopes, would start. So Plum took the complete novices to the Carr
Bridge Golf Course, and I had my first lesson on the golf course! It was so cold, and my
clothing so inadequate, that any movement other than violent shivering was almost totally
impossible. We had a flask of coffee between us to try to keep alive, I remember. After
about two hours, when even Plum seemed to notice that it was cold, we all took our skis
off and went back to the hotel to try to warm up. That wasn't easy because during the
night there had been a burst, and there was a 3" thick layer of ice down one of the interior
walls. Plum then set about getting the water system operational again. You had to be
tough to ski in Scotland in those days!!
Plum was the first British national to gain a ski instructor qualification at the Austrian Ski
School in St. Anton, about 1958, before there were any British ski instructor qualifications.
He continued to instruct at various centres around Aviemore, latterly at Glenmore Youth
Hostel, and also in the Alps, until the age of 70. But he continued to freelance after that.
Even at the end of his career, he had the ability to transmit his enthusiasm for skiing to
young beginners, who thoroughly enjoyed his ski classes on Cairngorm even in atrocious
weather.
Since 1960 I have met Plum many times, on Cairngorm, and in Aviemore, and heard
many stories from him, and more about him. He was always totally engrossed in the
matter of the moment, and equally oblivious to anything else. Once, in a friend's house,
during an intense conversation, he was totally unaware of a horrible smell of burning and
smoke rising around him, as the pipe he had just put in his pocket at the start of the
conversation had set fire to his jacket, and was trying to set fire to the chair he was sitting
in. I also well remember a chance encounter in Aviemore when Plum launched into a long
story about his latest skiing exploit, totally oblivious to the fact that we were both standing
in the middle of the main road, and that he was holding a white porcelain WC pan under
one arm.
More recently
In November 2004 Plum's wife Nan went into a geriatric hospital, and her mental health
rapidly deteriorated. A year later Plum also went into the hospital; whether to be with Nan
or whether he was having difficulty managing on his own is not clear. Once in the hospital,
it seems he didn't go out much. But on the 2nd of June this year, ten days after his 87th
birthday, a friend took him out by car to his favourite Glen Feshie, and took the
photograph below. He looked in pretty good health. About ten days later there was an
assessment meeting in the hospital involving medical staff, his social worker, and others,
and they tried to persuade him that he should give up his council house, accept that he
and Nan both needed long term care, and that he should give power of attorney to
someone to act for him. To someone as independently minded as Plum, that was
completely unacceptable. He became very angry, refused to co-operate, then refused to
eat, deteriorated rapidly, and died of pneumonia on the 23rd of June. Perhaps that is the
way he preferred it, rather than accept loss of control over his own life. (Within six weeks
of Plum's death, Nan also died, though whether she ever understood that Plum had died
is not clear.)
On Saturday July 8th the Aberdeen "Press and Journal" devoted 12 column-inches to a
report on Plum's death and his funeral, under the headline:
"Death of instructor who taught Prince Charles to ski"
Neville McMillan
Plum Worrall in Glen Feshie 2 June 2006 (Photo: W Wilson)
July Newsletter Index.
Copyright © 2006 Karabiner Mountaineering Club
|
