Edmund Hillary
Edmund Hillary (1919- ). New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. In 1953 he joined Colonel John Hunt’s expedition to Mount Everest and on 29 May, with the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, he was the first to reach the summit. After an expedition to the South Pole (1958) with Sir Vivian Fuchs, he led expeditions to the Himalayas (1961-64) and up the River Ganges (1977). From 1984 to 1989 he was New Zealand’s high com-missioner to India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. He was knighted in 1953 (see box).
