Bert Bissell (9 January 1902 – 2 November 1998) was a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

climber and peace campaigner. Born at

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, in January 1902, he founded the Young Men's Bible Class at Vicar Street Methodist Church in the town in 1925. The bible class remained at the church for 83 years, relocating to nearby Dixons Green Methodist Church after 31 August 2008 due to the building's deteriorating condition in spite of local opposition to its closure. Bissell, who worked as a

probation officer A probation and parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probati ...

, led a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

party from the Bible Class to the summit of

Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; gd, Beinn Nibheis ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom and the British Isles. The summit is above sea level and is the highest land in any direction for . Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian ...

VJ Day Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on ...

in 1945 and constructed a "Peace Cairn", in later years the subject of some controversy; the expedition from

to Fort William was repeated annually thereafter, a tradition which continued for some 50 years. At the age of 88, he opened Dudley's new

Milking Bank Primary School This is a list of schools in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England. State-funded schools Primary schools *Alder Coppice Primary School, Sedgley *Amblecote Primary School, Amblecote *Ashwood Park Primary School, Wordsley *B ...

on 6 November 1990, a year after it first opened to pupils. He was the subject in 1995 of a biographical article by Stan Hill in The Blackcountryman magazine. In 1997 he published a book, "God's Mountaineer" (Methodist Publishing House, ). He died in November 1998, aged 96, at Nethercrest Nursing Home in Netherton after fracturing his pelvis in a fall at his home in Selborne Road, Dudley the previous spring. His funeral was held at Vicar Street Methodist Church on 10 November and he was buried in the churchyard at Ben Nevis. In 2001 a limited edition book, "Bert Bissell Remembered", with contributions by 60 local writers, was published by Fairway Folio. A monument to Bert Bissell stands in Coronation Gardens, Dudley.BBC website
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References

External links

Express & Star
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bissell, Bert 1902 births People from Dudley British anti-war activists 1998 deaths