to his two favourite pursuits in combination and became a mountaineer philosopher. His two major philosophical works, The Zermatt Dialogues (1934) , a cosmology, and The Oberland Dialogues (1939), a study of the soul, are in a mountain setting. The distinctive mark of Fawcett’s philosophy is the discussion of imagination as the fundamental reality of the universe, and this was clearly displayed in his Divine Imagining (1929) and epitomised in his final epic poem, Light of the Universe (1957), which he wrote at the age of 91.

Fawcett was ever adventuring. When, at the age of 66, he was making his annual ascent of the Matterhorn, he had a heart attack, and with his companion, had to lie up in snow for the night. Next morning the two menwent to the summit, but that was Fawcett’s last climb on foot. At 68, pining for the peaks, Fawcett learned to fly, and thereafter, year by year, (excluding the war years), until he was 84, he would battle with the turbulent air among the Alpine heights, flying his light aeroplane and plying his camera. When no longer allowed to renew his flying licence, Fawcett became a player in chess congresses at national level. He played his last match at Hastings a few months before he died.

Straight-backed, six feet two inches, monocled, Douglas Fawcett combined a universality of mind with a gentle modesty. He married again in later life Mrs Vera Dick-Conyngham, daughter of Mostyn Price, and was accompanied in all he did by his artist wife, who survives