Reverend Woolmore Wigram

(1831-1907)

Although he had made the first ascent of the Dent Blanche with Thomas Kennedy and Jean-Baptiste Coz in 1862, Wigram had given up climbing by 1865. He had married Harriet Mary Ainger in 1863 and they went on to have seven children. The Wigrams were a prominent family, Woolmore went to Rugby School then Cambridge University, then took Holy Orders and entered the Church. He was an expert on campanology (bell ringing), writing a series of articles on the subject.

It was Wigram who, a couple of weeks after the accident on the Matterhorn, heard from Jean-Baptiste Croz about the rumour going round Chamonix that Old Peter Taugwalder had cut the rope. Wigram wrote to Whymper to inform him of the story, then they both wrote to Jean-Baptiste to assure him that the rumour was not true.