Dave Checkley

langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
It was with great sadness that I heard that Dave Checkley died last night, after a long illness. To lose both DC and Mel Gascoyne, two of the finest cavers to emerge from Lancaster University, in such a short space of time is tough.

Here is a picture of DC I took in February 1973 at Southampton Docks, when we were off for a six-month jolly to Venezuela.

dc.jpg
 
nickwilliams

nickwilliams

Well-known member
I first met Dave when he was BCRA Foreign Secretary and I was organising expeditions to Belize in the mid 1980s. I was a novice at organising expeditions and he was fantastically helpful, enthusiastic and willing to give me the benefit of his huge experience. Later I was lucky enough to do some caving with him, including a memorable trip with him and Steve Foster down Black Shiver Pot which we bottomed and got back to the surface in under 3 hours. (Hell, I must have been fit in them days!)

To me, Dave was one of the greats of British caving, and I will miss him.

Love and condolences to Margot.

Nick.
 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
Here's Dave at the entrance to Midge Hole in the Dales a few years ago.

I'll miss him.
 

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langcliffe

langcliffe

Well-known member
Here's a photo of Dave taken by Jude when we were engineering a way through the choss in Stile Pot (next to Bar Pot). He doesn't look that happy...

dc1.jpg
 
scurve

scurve

Member
This is very sad indeed.
I'll never forget the day I met this iconic figure from the caving world. After our day's caving he invited us back to his house for coffee and then gave me a bag of mangetout from his garden.
A wonderful man.
 
I

Ian Ball

Well-known member
Dave was supercool  :(

A great tale of surveying the unthinkable.

http://www.mulucaves.org/wordpress/articles/sarawak-chamber
 
JJ

JJ

Member
Very sad indeed. Dave was a wonderful inspiration to myself, always extremely encouraging and helpful. Lots of happy memories.

My thoughts and wishes are very much with Margot
 
Pitlamp

Pitlamp

Well-known member
To make sure that readers of this topic don't miss it, there is a separate post with a little information about the likely funeral arrangements here:

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=26116.msg318731;topicseen#new
 
C

cobz

New member
I feel very sad that Dave has died. We go back a long way with his contact with the H W.
My sympathies are with his family.

Cobz
 
J

Jenny P

Active member
Really sad to hear this.  Dave was a lovely guy and was immensely helpful in getting the British Caving Library off the ground in 2008.  He put in many hours of lifting, shifting and constructing as we moved Library material from a storage facility and into its new home at Glutton Bridge near Buxton and he helped to build the first sets of shelving on the new site, ready for the incoming piles of books and journals.

He put a great deal of effort into publicising the Library and also the Eli Simpson / BSA collection which is now held at the British geological Survey.

He will be sadly missed.  Condolences to Margot and the family.

 
D

DickW

Member
DC's family have let it be known that they intend the funeral to be a small, family-only affair. An event for cavers to celebrate DC's life will be organised in the Dales on a date to be confirmed. 
 
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