In reply to Bill Loughlin:
I dug these reports up with a bit of searching, I think it makes the date of the accident 26th April 1976.
The Cincinnati Enquirer : Thursday, April 29, 1976
American Student-Climber Killed BRISTOL, England (AP) American student Jonathan Gross, 20, fell 100 feet to his death Wednesday in a climbing accident in the Avon Gorge near Bristol in southwest England, police reported. Gross, a student at Columbia University in New York on a short-term study program at Oxford University, was the leader of a climbing team scaling the sheer-sided gorge when the accident occurred, a spokesman said. Another American - 20-year-old Stephen Blake, studying international politics at Brown University, Providence, R.I., and also attending Oxford, was injured In the accident, police said. The spokesman said Gross came from New Jersey and Blake from Port Byron, N.Y. A third American in the group, Thomas Beaton, 20, of Lincoln, Mass., escaped unhurt, police reported.
The Des Moines Register : Friday, April 30, 1976
Student critical after cliff-climbing fall BRISTOL, ENGLAND (AP) - Stephen Blake, a 20-year-old Brown University student studying In England, was in critical condition with head injuries Thursday after a cliff-climbing fall that killed another American student. A third American student was unhurt in the accident. Blake, of Port Byron, N.Y., fell 100 feet Wednesday after losing his footing on the face of the Avon Gorge on the outskirts of Bristol. Jonathan Gross, 19, a Columbia University student from Murray Hill, N. J., was dragged down to his death when Blake fell. Gross, who had been giving a climbing lesson to Blake and Tom Beaton, a 20-year-old Princeton University student from Lincoln, Mass., died of a fractured skull, a coroner's Inquest was told Thursday. Beaton was unhurt.
Detroit Free Press : Friday, April 30, 1976
Cliff Climber Dies in Fall BRISTOL, England-(AP)-A cliff-climbing fall killed one American student and left another severely injured Wednesday. A third was unhurt. Stephen Blake. 20, of Port Byron, N.Y., suffered critical head injuries when he fell 100 feet afler losing his footing on the face of the Avon Gorge, on the outskirts of Bristol. Jonathan Gross, 19 a Columbia University student from Murray Hill, N.J., was dragged down to his death when Blake fell. Gross, who had been giving a climbing lesson to Blake and Tom Beaton, a 20-year-old Princeton University student from Lincoln, Mass., died of a fractured skull, a coroner's inquest was told Thursday. Blake is a Brown University student.
