The Scots peer who remains trapped in the ice below the Matterhorn 160 years after he fell to his death

Despite attempts to retrieve him and bring his body home, Lord Francis Douglas remains lost to the Swiss Alps. His story, however, continues to be told as the tragedy of the first ascent of the peak on July 14, 1865, marks its 160th anniversary.

The death of Lord Douglas, who was born in Cummertrees near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway and educated at Edinburgh Academy, reverberated around the world and led to recriminations, unproven accusations of murder and an unrelenting spotlight on the ethics of such expeditions where men pitted themselves against the mightiest forces of nature as they hunted for personal glory.

Lord Douglas, the son of the 8th Marquess of Queensberry, died alongside three others on the first ascent of Matterhorn - regarded climber Reverend Charles Hudson, 36, his protege Douglas Hadow, 18, and a local guide Michael Croz, 35.

There were claims, never proven, that the rope which held all seven climbers on the expedition together was deliberately cut to spare an even greater loss of life.

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The Times newspaper went hard on those in pursuit of mountain peaks following the death of “one of the best young fellows in Europe” and questioned the morality of the growing pastime of mountain-climbing.

“Is it life? Is it duty? Is it common sense? Is it allowable? Is it not wrong?” the newspaper asked.

Accounts suggest that Queen Victoria asked then prime minister William Gladstone if mountaineering might be made illegal.

Charles Dickens also weighed in on the controversy, arguing that the new fad of climbing was as whimsical as someone trying to ascend “all the cathedral spires in the United Kingdom”. The sport was a “greater folly than gambling”, with nothing to gain from it but an “empty boast”, he wrote.

Edward Whymper, 25, was the only British survivor of the expedition and made it back to Zermatt along with local guide Peter Taugwalder and his son, also Peter.

The expedition leader described Hadow slipping, knocking over Croz and then dragging Hudson and Lord Douglas with him.

He later described the moment the four men disappeared off the mountainside, falling more than 4,000 metres to their deaths below.

“For two or three seconds we saw our unfortunate companions sliding downwards on their backs and spreading out their hands endeavouring to save themselves. They then disappeared one-by-one,” Whypmer said.

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Whymper, spent the rest of his life dogged by the controversy surrounding the expeditions as hate mail - believed to have been sent by a rival - forced him to confront the human cost of his mountaineering success.

The expedition features in a book now republished to mark the 160th year since the ill-fated expedition to the top of the Matterhorn, the landmark peak that rises like a pyramid in the south west of Switzerland.

The Ascent of the Matterhorn: The Forgotten Photographs has been published by Gibson Square in association with The Alpine Club . It features words and images from Whymper, who took his camera kit to the summit and details the impact of the fatal climb throughout the decades.

“It was the death of the 18-year-old Lord Francis Douglas, a Scottish peer and son of the Marquess of Queensberry, that made the fall reverberate around the world in a way that other climbing accidents before 1865 had not.

“Paradoxically, as a result, reaching summits became the sport as we know it today with queues on Mount Everest where people trek past the mummies of unlucky climbers,” a statement from the publisher said.

The book also contains the hate mail sent to Whymper after he made an appeal for the families of guides left behind following such tragedies.

The newly-discovered letter is published in the book for the first time.

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Dated August 25 1865 and sent anonymously, it spoke of the “full damage” sustained by The Alpine Club from the loss of life on the Matterhorn. It also mentions Professor Tyndall, a rival of Whymper’s.

“The fact is that the members of The Alpine Club are generally a vain lot - Professor Tyndall is an exception. He risks his life, and nobly, for science and truth. But what benefit do the mountain climbers confer on anybody - none.”

Professor Tyndall earlier made a failed attempt on the summit and had discouraged Whymper in his mission to reach the top. Whymper spent most of the rest of his life trying to find out who wrote the letter.

Several attempts have been made to try and locate the body of Lord Douglas, whose body was the only one never discovered.

An article in the Washington Times in 1905 said: “In the hope that the slowly moving Zmutt glacier may this year yield up the long entombed body of one of its most famous victims , Lady Florence Dixie has published a letter appealing to all Alpine climbers who may be in the vicinity to keep a sharp look out for the corpse of her brother, Lord Francis Douglas, who perished there 40 years ago in the descent from the summit of the Matterhorn.

“Notwithstanding the great lapse of time, experts declare that if discovered it will be found in an excellent state of preservation - practically embalmed in ice - and will be easily recognizable.”

An unsuccessful search was launched in 2021, with an earlier attempt made several years before.

David Queensberry, the current Marquess of Queensberry, said in 2014 that the possibility of finding his great-great-uncle had “been in my mind all my life.”

A memorial to Lord Francis Douglas stands outside the family mausoleum in Cummertrees.

The Ascent of the Matterhorn: the Forgotten Photographs is published by Gibson Square and available now.

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