Douglas Hadow

(1846-1865)

Douglas Hadow was not an experienced mountaineer when, in 1865, he made the spectacular achievement of reaching the summit of the Matterhorn. His first trip to the Alps was in 1864, when he visited Zermatt in September. He seems not to have had much opportunity to develop climbing skills on this visit, partly because of atrocious weather, although he did spend a couple of nights up at the Riffelhaus hotel.

Hadow came from a comfortably off family who lived at York Terrace in London, close to Regent’s Park. His father was Chairman of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company. Douglas and his six brothers were all educated at Harrow School, where they earned the nick-name the Harrow Hadows. One of those brothers, Frank, was to go on and win the Wimbledon Championship in 1878.