Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund Hillary
Hillary in 2006
Born
20 July 1919(1919-07-20)
Auckland, New Zealand
Died
11 January 2008 (aged 88)
Auckland, New Zealand
Cause of
death
Myocardial infarction
Spouse(s) Louise Mary Rose (m. 1953–1975)
«start: (1953)–end+1: (1976)»"Marriage:
Louise Mary Rose to Edmund Hillary"
Location:
(linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Edmund_Hillary)
June Mulgrew, QSM (1989-2008)
Children
Peter (1954)
Sarah (1955)
Belinda (1959-1975)
Parents
Percival Augustus Hillary
Gertrude Hillary, née Clark
Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG, ONZ,
KBE (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a
New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On
29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa
mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the
first climbers known to have reached the
summit of Mount Everest. They were part of
the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by
John Hunt.
Hillary became interested in mountaineer-
ing while in secondary school, making his
first major climb in 1939, reaching the sum-
mit of Mount Ollivier. He served in the
RNZAF as a navigator during World War II.
Before the successful expedition in 1953 to
Everest, he had been part of a reconnais-
sance expedition to the mountain in 1951 and
an unsuccessful attempt to climb Cho Oyu in
1952. As part of the Commonwealth Trans-
Antarctic Expedition he reached the South
Pole overland in 1958. He would later also
travel to the North Pole.
Following his ascent of Everest he devoted
much of his life to helping the Sherpa people
of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which
he founded. Through his efforts many schools
and hospitals were built in this remote region
of Nepal.
Youth
Hillary was born to Percival Augustus Hillary
and Gertrude Hillary, née Clark, in Auckland,
New Zealand, on 20 July 1919.[1] His family
moved to Tuakau (south of Auckland) in
1920, after his father (who served at Gal-
lipoli) was allocated land there.[2] His grand-
parents were early settlers
in northern
Wairoa in the mid 19th century after emigrat-
ing from Yorkshire, England.[3]
Hillary was educ