Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (1919-2008)

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the demise of our patron Sir Edmund Hillary. Sir Edmund died of a heart failure on 11 Jan 2008. He was 88 years old. On behalf of all members, we would like to extend our deepest condolences to the family of Sir Edmund Hillary. He was born on 20 July 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand. He was part of the 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest, which saw him summiting with Shepa Tenzing Norgay. The last part of the ascent was the 12m rock face where Hillary wedge his way up a crack in the face between the rock wall and the ice and Tenzing followed. It was later named the "Hillary Step". They reached Everest's 8,848 m summit, at 11:30 am, 29 May 1953. He was aged 33. His first remark on his return from the successful summit attempt, "... we finally knocked the bastard off."

He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) on 6 June 1953; a member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ) in 1987; and a Knight of the Order of the Garter (KG) on 22 April 1995.

Sir Edmund also reached the South Pole as part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition on 4 January 1958. In 1985 he accompanied Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined ski plane over the Arctic Ocean and landed at the North Pole. He thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest. Following his ascent of Everest he devoted much of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal. He founded the Himalayan Trust. Through his efforts many schools and hospitals were built in this remote region of the Himalayas. In 2003, to mark the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Everest, the Nepalese Government conferred honorary citizenship upon Hillary. He was the first foreign national to receive such an honour from the Nepalese government. Sir Edmund visited Singapore a few times. In 1988, he presided at the DHL Adventurer Awards. He was also here in December 1990 for a gathering with SAC members.