An organisation known as the ‘Joint Stretcher Committee’ began life back in 1933 under the aegis of the Rucksack Club and the Fell & Rock Mountaineering Clubs. The object of the Committee was quickly realised when ‘a stretcher’ was born in 1934, a fine example of this Thomas Stretcher can be found elsewhere in the collection.

Initially nationwide the Committee went on to organise rescue posts in the main mountain areas of the UK, equipping them with the necessities for conducting a rescue. Hotels, police stations, youth hostels, mountaineering club huts and an actual Rescue Box in some areas. Each was marked with a sign indicating that it was a Rescue Post, and for a while Ordnance Survey maps indicated where the Posts were located.

As the Committee operated UK wide initially the first signs simply read ‘Mountain Rescue Committee’ though when Scotland set up its own Mountain Rescue Committee in the 1960s they incorporated the word ‘Scottish’ in their Post signs, we have fine examples of both here in the collection.

With the advent of modern communications and faster response time Rescue Posts were slowly dismantled. A few remain, Sty Head Pass in the Lakes, CIC Hut on Ben Nevis and Coire an Sneachda in the Cairngorms. Several Posts have now become the local Rescue Teams headquarters, there are two in Skye at the Sligachan Hotel and Glen Brittle respectively.

(There are numerous mountain rescue related items in the collection – type Mountain Rescue into the search box to find them.)

Donated by Lochaber MRT & Bob Sharpe.