Rennie Montague Bere


Rennie Montague Bere CMG was a British mountaineer, naturalist and nature conservationist. In 1928 he became a member of the Alpine Club, London. In 1957 he became a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George.

Biography

Bere was the son of a clergyman. He was educated at Marlborough College and in 1926 entered Selwyn College, Cambridge. In 1930 he joined the British Colonial Service, went to Uganda and worked as District Commissioner and later as Provincial Commissioner for the northern Province. In 1955 he became Director and Chief Ranger of the Uganda National Parks. In 1960 he left Uganda with his wife Anne Maree, whom he had married in Uganda in 1936, and lived in retirement at West Cottage near Bude in Cornwall.
Bere published about a dozen books including The Way to the Mountains of the Moon, Antelopes, The Nature Of Cornwall and his autobiography A Cuckoo's Parting Cry: a personal account of life and work in Uganda between 1930 and 1960.

Climbing and mountain exploration

In 1935, when on leave from Africa, Bere and David Cox made the first ascent of Climbers Club Ordinary on the Dewerstone in Devon, a climb which is featured in the compendium Classic Rock and was the first recorded route on the Dewerstone, a cliff which "offers the finest climbs" on Dartmoor.
During his thirty years in Uganda he accomplished many feats of mountaineering and added to knowledge of the mountains particularly of the Ruwenzori range. Bere researched many inselbergs, the Imatong range on the Sudanese border and the Virunga volcano.

Selected works