The story of Walter Ingham, who founded the UK’s leading winter sports travel agency 90 years ago this year, is nothing if not romantic. His birth was romantic—he was born in Vienna in 1914, because his parents Frank and Lillian, had eloped there from Burnley in Lancashire. His childhood was pretty romantic too—spending his school years in Austria with the mountains as his playground, where he learned to climb, sail and, crucially, ski. But it was his decision to set up a ski travel business—which grew into the beloved travel brand Inghams that’s still going strong today—that was perhaps the most romantic of all.
At the age of 18, having not applied himself to academic matters with the rigour his parents would have liked (too much climbing and skiing, apparently) Ingham was sent back to England, where his father had found him a job selling Remington typewriters. But very soon, according to The Guardian, he “found that selling typewriters gave no job satisfaction—and no skiing.” He managed to stick it out for two years. But at age 20, he quit with the small sum of £25 in his pocket (equivalent to £1,500 today) and the big dream of turning his passion into his livelihood.
Ingham paid for a small ad in the Daily Telegraph advertising a “private ski party to ski the Tyrol – 14 days for 12 guineas,” and in Christmas 1934, he escorted his first guests to Schoenburg, just south of Innsbruck. He quickly worked out that if he took 15 guests out to the Alps, he could get a free train ticket and free accommodation for himself. And so he led several more trips that season—to Kuhtai, Obergurgl, Gerlos, and elsewhere—finishing his first winter with £80.
Like the countless young seasonaires who’ve followed in his footsteps (many of them, of course, wearing his company’s badge on their chest) Ingham wasn’t really fussed about making money, he just wanted to ski as much as possible. He would often take groups back-to-back, only stopping long enough to have a quick wash at Victoria Station before meeting his next clients. Despite his lack of concrete commercial aims however, he was in a pretty unique position. There weren’t many other fluent-German-speaking Brits who knew the Alps well at the time. The business grew steadily, and before long, Walter was employing the first Inghams reps to help share the workload. By the time the Nazis annexed his beloved Austria in 1938, Ingham had moved most of his business to France, but the war did put a stop to his operations—if only temporarily. Ingham enlisted in the army, but when he was demobbed in 1948, he picked up right where he’d left off.
As the ski industry boomed in the post-war years, Inghams—as it was then called—became known for its innovative approach. They were one of the first travel companies to run ski trains from the UK to resorts, and introduced the concept of the disco car (or “dancing car,” as it was known, because disco hadn’t been invented) in 1950. It was also one of the first to start flying guests to the Alps—in propeller-powered DC3s. In 1962, two years shy of his 60th birthday, Walter Ingham sold the company to Hotelplan, and retired to the island of Elba to spend more time sailing. But by this time, Inghams was sending some 14,000 Brits to the mountains every winter, and the new owners kept it growing.
Today, Inghams is still known for its innovations, according to Brand Manager Helen Taylor. In 1999, it became the first UK company to take bookings online. And in recent years—in an ironic reversal of the 20th century trends from Walter’s time—Inghams has lead the way in encouraging guests to “swap the plane for the train,” as part of a drive towards greater sustainability. “You can now travel to over 25 percent of our resorts by train,” Taylor says. And that’s just one of the initiatives they’ve adopted, which also include “redesigning their chalet menus” to prioritise lower carbon and locally-sourced food, and cutting out single use plastic. “We want to protect the mountains that Walter loved so much,” says Taylor.
Ingham himself would no doubt appreciate these innovations. But if he could see the company 90 years on, he’d probably be most proud people’s passion. Taylor herself started out as a chalet host in Tignes, as did many of her colleagues. And the best thing about Inghams today, she says, is, “being surrounded by passionate people, and hosting holidays that celebrate our love for the great outdoors.”
It certainly beats selling typewriters for a living.
