J. L. Longland

Sir John Laurence "Jack" Longland (26 June 1905 – 29 November 1993) was an educator, mountain climber, and broadcaster.

After a brilliant student career Longland became a don at Durham University in the 1930s. He formed a lifelong concern for the welfare of unemployed people, and after a time working in community service he moved to become an educational administrator, retiring in 1970. Among his achievements was the establishment of White Hall in Derbyshire, the country's first local authority Outdoor Pursuits Centre for young people.

As a young man Longland was prominent among British rock-climbers, taking a distinguished part in the 1933 British Mount Everest expedition. Later in life he was active in the affairs of the British Mountaineering Council.

Longland was a familiar broadcaster on BBC Radio, appearing regularly from the late 1940s until the 1970s in the long-running Round Britain Quiz, Any Questions?, and the panel game My Word!, which he chaired for twenty years from 1957.

Longland was the eldest son of the Rev E. H. Longland (successively curate of Hagley, vicar of St Paul's, Warwick (1908–16) rector of St Nicholas's Droitwich (1916–27), and vicar of Cropthorne (1927)) and his wife, Emily, elder daughter of Sir James Crockett. Longland was educated at the King's School, Worcester, and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was Rustat Exhibitioner and Scholar, won a Blue for pole-vaulting, and gained a first in Part I of the Historical Tripos in 1926, and first class honours with distinction in the English Tripos in 1927.

After graduating, Longland was elected Charles Kingley bye-fellow of Magdalene College for two years, and then spent a year in Germany as Austausch-student at Königsberg University, where he witnessed the early rise of Adolf Hitler.

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