Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, on 18 June 1886. His
father, Herbert Leigh Mallory, was rector of St Wilfrid’s church, a position
first held by a Mallory (Thomas, son of Sir William Mallory of Studley) as far
back as 1619.
George didn’t follow his father into the church, however. At
13 he won a mathematics scholarship to Winchester College, where he became
interested in rock climbing and mountaineering. (Although it is said he scaled
the tower at St Wilfrid’s aged seven, so perhaps it was always part of his
make-up!) After getting a degree at
Cambridge, he became a teacher at Charterhouse, marrying Ruth Turner just six
days before the start of the First World War. George served in the Royal
Garrison Artillery during the war, and then returned to Cambridge. In 1921 (now
with three children) he resigned his post to join the first British Mount
Everest Expedition.
By this time Mallory’s reputation as an exceptional
mountaineer was uncontested; many considered him the best climber in the world.
‘His movement in climbing
was entirely his own’, said Geoffrey Winthrop Young. ‘It contradicted all theory.
He would set his foot high against any angle of smooth surface, fold his
shoulder to his knee, and flow upward and upright again on an impetuous
curve." Fellow climber Harry
Tyndale agreed: ‘In watching George at work one was conscious not so much of
physical strength as of suppleness and balance; so rhythmical and harmonious
was his progress in any steep place ... that his movements appeared almost
serpentine in their smoothness.’
The attempt on Everest was unsuccessful, however, as was the
Second Expedition, which was further marred by the deaths of seven porters in
an avalanche, for which Mallory felt partly responsible and for which he was
harshly criticised. Following the disaster he travelled to the US to lecture on
his experiences, and in New York was asked why he wanted to climb Everest:
‘Because it’s there’, he famously replied.
And then came the Third Expedition. By now George was 37 and
he knew it would probably be his last chance to become the first person to
climb Everest. On 8 June 1924 Mallory and Birkenhead-born Andrew Irvine, who
was 22, left their camp at 26,700 feet to make a summit attempt. They were sighted
briefly by support climber Noel Odell at 12.50 pm, when he saw them scaling
what he believed to be the Second Step on the Northeast Ridge (he later decided
it was actually the First Step; some have since suggested it was the even
higher, then unknown, Third Step), about 800 feet from the summit.
This was the last time they were ever seen alive – Mallory
and Irvine never returned. Whether they reached the summit before they died has
been a matter of contention ever since.
News of the loss of Mallory and Irvine was greeted with shock
in Britain. A memorial service at St Paul’s cathedral on 17 October was attended
by King George V and other members of the royal family, as well as Prime
Minister Ramsay Macdonald and the entire Cabinet.
Memorials were erected around the country. They include
stained glass windows in the South Cloister at Chester cathedral and at
Winchester College. Unsurprisingly, there is also a window dedicated to him at
St Wilfrid’s. Mallory Court at Magdalene College, Cambridge is named after him,
and in 1925 US climber Norman Clyde named Mount Mallory and Mount Irvine in
California in the men’s honour.
As has been
well documented, Mallory’s body was discovered on the North Face of Everest in May
1999. Two pieces of circumstantial evidence – the fact that he no longer had
the photograph of his wife that he had planned to leave on the summit; and that
he was carrying his snow goggles, implying the men were descending after sunset
– have led some to believe that they did reach the summit. Others believe the
Second Step was just too difficult to climb at that time.
After an
Anglican service, Mallory’s body was covered by a cairn of stones and left on
the mountain.
.JPG)
George Leigh Mallory; Mallory memorial window; detail of window; St Wilfrid's, Mobberley
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