Harold Raeburn

Harold Andrew Raeburn (21 July 1865 – 21 December 1926) was a Scottish mountaineer. He was one of the most prominent British mountaineers of his era with several first ascents. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries he took part in numerous ascents in Norway, contributing to the popularization of Norwegian mountaineering among the international mountaineering community. Some of his regular mountaineering partners in Norway were William Cecil Slingsby, Howard Priestman and Norwegians Kristian Tandberg and George Paus. He was mountaineering leader on the initial 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition. Life Raeburn was born in 1865 at 12 Grange Loan, Edinburgh. His father William Raeburn, a brewer, married Jessie Ramsay in 1849. Harold Raeburn was their fourth son, and he grew up to enter his father's occupation as a brewer. He died in Edinburgh, on 21 December 1926, and was buried in Warriston Cemetery, Edinburgh. Mountaineering Scotland It is not documented how or why Raeburn began climbing as a sport, but his early enthusiasm in ornithology led him to climb or descend many steep faces, in search of nests and eggs. A collection of eggs by him is kept in National Museums Scotland, Edinburgh. Living under Edinburgh's Salisbury Crags and possessing a wiry, athletic build he soon adapted to the vertical world of rock and ice.