Edmund Hillary: Noted explorer and philanthropist
Hillary was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 20, 1919. He attended a local primary school in Tuakau, a rural area near Auckland. The shy boy with a passion for reading adventure stories attended secondary school in the city. The teenager also used to help in his father’s beekeeping work and later left school to help him.
On a school trip in 1935 he went to Mount Ruapehu for skiing and soon developed a love for the mountains. A few years later, he climbed Mount Olliver in New Zealand.
Hillary worked for the Royal New Zealand Air Force during World War II. New Zealand was helping the Allied powers of USA, UK, and Russia in their fight against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. He was wounded in the war, but resolved to resume mountain climbing after his recovery.
CONQUEST OF EVEREST
Hillary climbed several mountains in New Zealand and in Europe during the 1940s. He was invited to join Sir John Hunt’s expedition to the till then unconquered Mt Everest in Nepal. Hillary and Hunt prepared themselves for the Everest climb for two years. During the period preceding it, two climbers had lost their lives after coming close to the summit.
Hillary and Hunt set up a camp at the base of the mountain. The group included 36 Sherpas who were familiar with the terrain. Hunt sent two men to climb the mountain from there. They failed but collected valuable information that helped the team in the next attempt. Hunt selected Hillary and the Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay to make another attempt. Finally, the duo reached the summit on May 29, 1953, making them the first in the world to do so.
THE SOUTH POLE
Hillary became world famous after climbing Everest. Vivian Fuchs invited him to become part of the Trans-Antarctic expedition in 1957 and 1958 to the South Pole. Hillary’s task was to ensure supplies from the base camp so that Fuchs’ team could cross Antarctica.
He used Ferguson farm tractors for transport. After setting up the last supply dump, Hillary decided to head for the Pole himself. He succeeded in reaching there with three tractors on January 4, 1958, enabling him to become the first person to reach there by land in 46 years.
Hillary also undertook an expedition from the mouth of the Ganga river to its delta, partly using a jet boat and partly trekking.
SOCIAL ACTIVIST
Hillary devoted time and energy to environmental and social causes in Nepal, building hospitals and schools in the country’s mountainous regions.
He set up the Himalayan Trust, which made great contributions to welfare of the local people. Over the next 30 years, with the help of volunteers from New Zealand and other countries, the Trust set up a dozen schools, two airfields, two hospitals and several medical clinics. It also repaired monasteries, replaced bridges, and installed water pipelines. The local Sherpas began to call him Burra Sahib (big in heart).
Hillary was knighted in 1953. In 1985, he was appointed New Zealand’s high commissioner to India.
He faced a tragedy in 1975 when his wife and teenage daughter were killed in a plane crash. Later, he remarried. After retirement, he devoted time to bee-keeping, an activity he was engaged in since his youth. Sir Edmund Hillary died in Auckland on January 11, 2008, aged 88.
FACTS
1. To finance his hobby of mountain climbing in the winter season, Hillary became a beekeeper in summer alongside college. Love for bees and the environment, however, remained with him throughout life.
2. He was the first man to have stood on Mount Everest and both the poles. He reached the South Pole in 1958 and reached the North Pole with astronaut Neil Armstrong in 1985.
3. In 1987, Hillary was among the first 20 people selected as members of the Order of New Zealand, his country’s highest honour. In 1995, he was selected to receive Britain’s oldest and one of its highest honours -- Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
4. Hillary had a very close shave with death in 1960 when he was among those booked to take an ill-fated TWA flight but missed it because of delay in reaching the airport. So, he had a providential escape from the disaster caused by a mid-air collision with a United Airlines flight in New York, that killed 128 passengers.
5. In 1992, Hillary became the first living New Zealander to appear on the country’s currency note. His portrait was printed on the $5 dollar note.
6. Despite his achievements as a mountaineer, adventurer, diplomat and philanthropist, Hillary is best remembered for his kindness, generosity and humility.
Sources: nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/edmund-hillary; notablebiographies.com