Great Men and Women

Millican Dalton

Dont’ waste words, jump to conclusions

Millican Dalton was a self-styled “Professor of adventure”. He was born on the 20th April 1867 in the Cumberland, England  and spent his early life in the North West of England. His family moved to Essex and eventually Millican became an insurance clerk in London.

However, at the age of 36 Millican gave up his comfortable lifestyle to go in search of “romance and freedom”. For nearly 50 years he spent much of his life living in a cave in the Borrowdale Valley, Cumbria, living off his wits and a small income as a climbing guide. Millican carved the words “Don’t waste words, jump to conclusions” into the walls of the cave which can still be seen today.

He was a vegetarian, pacifist and teetotaller and offered camping trips to young ladies long before they became the norm and socially respectable.  He was a true maverick and free thinker.

We dress too much, we eat too much, almost everything we do is too much (Millican Dalton)

Millican died at the age of 79 in 1947 in a hospital ward. A book lay uncompleted by his bedside entitled “Philosophy of Life”. Unfortunately this book remains lost to this day.