Francis Sydney Smythe (1900-1949)

The 'dominant and symbolic figure' (DNB) of British mountaineering between the wars, Smythe's finest Alpine climbs were the new routes that he and Professor Thomas G. Brown forced up the Brenva face of Mont Blanc in 1927 and 1928.

Smythe achieved success in the literary field, becoming 'perhaps the most popular mountain writer in English that there has ever been. ... Whether or not by his intention, his greatest appeal turned out to be to the non-mountaineering public: the exceptionally high quality, for their time, of his photographic illustrations was an important factor here' (DNB).