John Ellis Roberts
John Ellis Roberts, former Chair of Mountain Training Cymru and retired Guide, was killed yesterday after a tragic accident on Dinas Cromlech in North Wales. Carlo Forte, the current Chair of Mountain Training Cymru, shares his thoughts on the passionate Welshman...
John was a familiar face to many of us as a longstanding member and former Chair of Mountain Training Cymru over a great many years. During his period as Chair he sought to lay the foundations for the Board to grow and develop into its current form where we now have greater representation and influence both in Wales and the UK.
He was a very familiar figure around North Wales, having been Head Warden of the Snowdonia National Park for many years and an active contributor to Mountain Rescue. In more recent years he worked with specialist helicopter contractors and film location finders. He was particularly active as a skier and ski tourer and I'm sure there will be more comprehensive obituaries in the coming days of this passionate welsh man, who have a great of the mountains, awarded an MBE, and someone who had been part of our organisation for many years. Our shared car journeys to meetings would often be peppered with conversations about his latest adventures involving skis or helicopters and as an enthusiastic cyclist he would often council opinion on who was about to win Le Tour.
My first contact with John was when he asked me to work with him on the film set of a James Bond movie. On one particular day I watched him indulge himself in all his passions whilst working; being in the mountains, working on the set of a big movie, filming from a helicopter and even managing to cycle to work one morning. It was a great lesson in how to organise your work.
Our thoughts are with his close friends and family.
Carlo18 July 2014
There is a
BBC News story about the accident.