Guy John Fenton Knowles

Born: 1 July 1879.

Died: 1959 in Dorking, Surrey, England.

Guy Knowles was a young climber who first visited the Alps in 1893, at age fourteen, where he scaled the Piz Roseg (12,917 feet) and other nearby mountains. His résumé included the Wetterhorn (12,113 feet) and Jungfrau (13,642 feet) in 1895, and the Matterhorn (14,692 feet), Gabelhorn (13,330 feet), and Wellenkuppe (12,805 feet) in 1896. In 1898, Oscar Eckenstein accompanied him on ascents of the Weisshorn (14,780 feet), Lyskamm (14,852 feet), Dent Blanche (14,291 feet), and Matterhorn by the Zmutt arête. Although Crowley considered him, at age twenty-two, “far too young for work of this kind,” Eckenstein’s firsthand experience with the climber convinced him otherwise; the fact that he was able to help finance the expedition made up for any lack of mountaineering experience. Guy John Fenton Knowles was the second son of Charles Julius Knowles and his wife Loyse (née Essinger) of Kensington, who were friends with many English and French artists of the era and patrons of painter and etcher Alphonse Legros (1837–1911). They started Guy in art collecting while he was still a schoolboy at Rugby, introduced him to Auguste Rodin in Paris (Rodin gifted him with the first bronze cast made of his sculpture Sœur et frère), and even arranged for Legros to give Guy lessons in drawing and sculpting. He matriculated to Trinity College in June 1898, just missing Crowley; dividing his time between engineering, rowing, and the Fitzwilliam museum (where he said he passed many of the most profitable and enjoyable quieter hours of his undergraduate life), he took a Second Class in Part I of the Mechanical Sciences Tripos, receiving his B.A. in 1901, the year before the K2 expedition. Crowley found him cheerful and willing to follow directions, “the best companion I could have wished.”

In the summer of 1902, Oscar Eckenstein and Crowley undertook the first attempt to scale Chogo Ri (known in the west as K2), located in Pakistan. The Eckenstein-Crowley Expedition consisted of Eckenstein, Crowley, Guy Knowles, Heinrich Pfannl, Victor Wessely, and Dr Jules Jacot Guillarmod.

Guy Knowles will be remembered as one of the principal benefactors of the Fitzwilliam Museum, to which he had been a generous friend during his lifetime and to which he left in his will a remarkable collection of paintings, drawings, bronzes and miscellaneous works of art. His parents were both deep lovers of the arts, particularly sculpture and drawing, and had many friends in France, to which country Guy Knowles had a great affection and which he knew intimately.

The K2 Expedition.

From left to right

Victor Wessely,

Oscar Eckenstein,

Jules Jacot Guillarmod,

Aleister Crowley,

Heinrich Pfannl

and Guy Knowles.

20 June 1902.

The K2 Expedition.

From left to right.

Guy Knowles,

Crowley &

Victor Wessely.