Member of the New Zealand Alpine Club: "J.D. (Doug) Knowles was a prominent mountaineer in Otago in the 1930s and was a driving force behind the Alpine Club being established in Southland. He died early on Sunday August 27th, 1989, at his home in Geraldine, on the same night that a message of greetings from him was read to the Southland Section Dinner in Queenstown.

His interest in the mountins began in the late 1920s with a holiday job at the Hermitage working as a mountaineer general which included a little guiding. Through the 1930s he developed as a strong climber making frequent visits to both the Otago mountains and the Mount Cook region, however, it was in Otago where he made his name.

He joined the airforce as a photographer in World War II, but owing to a penchant for falling asleep in the aircraft and failing to photograph the bomb patterns during practice, he was released for active service on the Cape Expedition. He spent 25 months on the Auckland and Campbell Islands on coast watch and weather observation duties." (from the New Zealand Alpine Journal, 1989) AWMM