Duff mountain rescue stretcher

Sport

Stretcher invented by Donald Duff (1893-1968) and used by Lochaber Mountain Rescue team (LMRT) whose patch includes Ben Nevis. Duff was a doctor, pioneer of Scottish mountain rescue, inventor, author, and the leader of LMRT in the late 1940s and 1950s. As chief surgeon at the Belford Hospital in Fort William he would often treat the casualties he had just rescued in the hospital still dressed in his mountain attire. Donald Duff invented this stretcher in 1944. It was in common use until it was replaced by the MacInnes Stretcher. The MacInnes stretcher was invented by local mountaineering legend Hamish MacInnes (1930 – 2020) who used some of the features of the Duff stretcher in his design. The MacInnes MK1 came into use in the early 1960s and later versions of it is still used by Scottish mountain rescue teams today.

Material: metal, canvas

Size: L 1900 mm x W 700 mm x H 350 mm

Sources: Scottish Mountain Heritage Collection