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Name: FIRMIN, Arthur Herbert

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Nee: son of Frederick John Firmin

Birth Date: 6 Jan 1912 Nairobi

Death Date: 28 May 1955 Nepal, on Kenya expedition to Himalayas, buried at Pokhara

First Date: 1912

Last Date: 1955

Profession: Established Firmin's Ltd., Photographers, Nairobi. He was also a mountaineer. Ex Kenya Police photographic officer

Area: Nairobi

Married: In Nairobi 13 July 1940 Kathleen Barry b. 13 Feb 1910 London, d. 27 Mar 1993 Nanyuki

Children: two dau.

Book Reference: Gillett, Habari 17, Staff 39, Sundown, EA & Rhodesia, Barnes

General Information:

Died during his return from Himulchuli (25,896 ft.) not from Mt. Everest (info from Mr Harry Hilton). 
Habari 17 - While climbing loose rocks - long before they reached the difficult and dangerous part - a rock rolled down the loose scree and hit Arthur in the thigh and broke it. Although he was carried by porters down towards medical assistance he died due to some complication en route. First to climb Mt. Kenya via the Northern route. (Source: Ian Dundas)  
Staff 39 - Asst. Inspector, Kenya Police in 1939, appointed 1939. Originally 2nd Grade Asst. Insp. 1937. CID in 1939
East Africa & Rhodesia - 2/6/55 - Mr Arthur Firmin, aged 43, joint leader of the expedition of 6 Kenyans who went to India to climb Himal Chuli, 25,801 ft., is now known to have died during the expedition. He broke his thigh on a fall on the mountain on May 16 and died before reaching Pokhra, the nearest air station, from which it had been intended to fly him to hospital. At the time of his fall Mr Firmin was making a second reconnaissance attempt to reach the summit. The expedition has been abandoned.
Balwant Rai - Prosecution witness at the trial of Balwant Rai and others - 1942 - Asst. Inspector, Kenya Police CID
Barnes Nanyuki cem Given Name: Kathleen Birth: 13 Feb 1910 Death: 27 Mar 1993 AGED: YR: 83, MO: 1, DA: 14
Obit in Alpine Journal ARTHUR FIRMIN, who died near Pokhara in Nepal on May 28, 1955, was the most distinguished mountaineer and professional photographer in East Mrica ; indeed, he was outstanding in any company in these fields and his loss at the early age of 43 is a grievous blow to a very wide circle of friends and admirers. Firmin was born in 1912 in Kenya. After education in-England he returned to the Colony in 1937 and joined the Kenya police force, in which he served throughout the war, acting as official photographer. The police declined to recognise his special talent by creating a special post and he resigned in 1946 to set up his own business in Nairobi. Through exceptionally hard work, the highest professional standards, and able assistance from his wife, he was soon established as the leading photographer in Nairobi and East Africa, with a wide and growing reputation in other countries such as England and America. He specialised in portraiture, wild game and mountain photography, but . recently had taken up a good deal of commercial photography. His superb pictures, some of which appear elsewhere in this Journal, have given pleasure to thousands. In 1953, at the first Exhibition in London of Commonwealth photographers, he won high praise : the Manchester Guardian critic wrote : ' Firmin's work dominates the Exhibition . . . [his principal exhibit, a magnificent landscape taken in the Ruwenzori] deserves to be enlarged to the size of a shop window and set up outside a shop window for everyone to enjoy.' He had an exceptional flair for composition and lighting effects. He sometimes told me how much he would like to take up painting-- possibly an unusual ambition for a photographer, but vvhich showed the true artist in him. Nearly all Firmin's mountaineering was done in East Africa, though he knew most of the British hill ranges and had spent ten days in Switzerland in 1951 when he did the Wellenkuppe-Ober Gabelhorn traverse and the Zermatt ridge of the Matterhorn. He was, however, essentially East African trained. From about 1941 onwards he became passionately devoted to the hills and was able to spend numerous holidays in them, combining business with pleasure. He was of ideal build short, compact; spare, and very strong ; a magnificent, determined and rhythmic rock climber ; and a more delightful companion never existed. He was absolutely unselfish. His optimism and resounding laugh were infectious, and characteristically he much preferred the ascent to the descent ; if so inclined, or when on a rescue party, he could walk steadily uphill almost as fast as most people walk downhill. He knew the principal East African mountains better than any other and had made no less than ten expeditions to Mt. Kenya, ten to Kilimanjaro, and three in the Ruwenzori. On Mt. Kenya he had climbed all the known routes except for the French I952 piton route on the North face, and the January I955 ice route on the West face.
 

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