George Mallory
George Herbert Leigh-Mallory was an English mountaineer who participated in the first three British Mount Everest expeditions from the early to mid-1920s. He and his climbing partner Andrew "Sandy" Irvine were reported to be last seen ascending near Everest's summit during the 1924 expedition, sparking debate as to whether they reached it before they died.
Born in Cheshire, England, Mallory became a student at Winchester College, where a teacher recruited him for an excursion in the Alps, and he developed a strong natural climbing ability. After graduating from Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he became friends with prominent intellectuals, he taught at Charterhouse School while honing his climbing skills in the Alps and the English Lake District. He pioneered new routes and became a respected figure in the British climbing community.
His service in the First World War interrupted his climbing, but he returned with renewed vigour after the war. Mallory's most notable contributions to mountaineering were his expeditions to Everest. In 1921, he participated in the first British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition, which established the North Col-North Ridge as a viable route to the summit. In 1922, he took part in a second expedition to attempt the first ascent of Everest, in which his team achieved a world altitude record of using supplemental oxygen. They were awarded Olympic gold medals for alpinism.
During the 1924 expedition, Mallory and Irvine disappeared on Everest's Northeast Ridge. They were last seen alive approximately 800 vertical feet from the summit, sparking debate as to whether one or both reached it before they died. Mallory's body was found in 1999 by the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition at, along with personal effects. The discovery provided clues, but no definitive proof about whether they reached the summit. When asked by a reporter why he wanted to climb Everest, Mallory purportedly replied, "Because it's there."
Early life and teaching career
Childhood
George Herbert Leigh-Mallory was born at Newton Hall, Mobberley, Cheshire, on 18 June 1886, the first son and second child of the Reverend Herbert Leigh Mallory, rector of the parish. His mother was Annie Beridge Leigh-Mallory. Mallory had two sisters, Mary Henrietta and Annie Victoria, and a younger brother, Trafford, the Second World War Royal Air Force commander. At the end of 1891, the Mallorys moved from Newton Hall to Hobcroft House, Mobberley. The family resided there until 1904, when they moved to Birkenhead, Cheshire. Mallory exhibited early audaciousness for climbing. Aged 7, he climbed the roof of his father's church, St Wilfrid's, in Mobberley. His sister Avie recalls, "He climbed everything that it was at all possible to climb." Included in his climbing escapades were the drainpipes of Hobcroft House and the walls that divided the farmers' fields.1896–1905: Glengorse and Winchester College
In 1896, Mallory was sent to Glengorse boarding school in Eastbourne on the south coast of England, after the abrupt closure of his first preparatory school in West Kirby, following the death of its headmaster. Mallory won a maths scholarship to Winchester College, an English public school, where he started in September 1900. At Winchester, he was proficient at sports, in addition to his academic ability. He became the best gymnast in the school, the only one capable of performing the giant swing on the horizontal bar. In July 1904, Mallory was a member of the Winchester team who won the Ashburton Shield for rifle shooting at Bisley.The housemaster of College, the boarding house for scholars, R. L. G. Irving, was an accomplished mountaineer and a member of the Alpine Club. In 1904, Irving was searching for new climbing companions after the death in an accident of the partner with whom he had done most of his climbing. Irving recruited Mallory and fellow pupil and friend, Harry Gibson, for a trip to the Alps. In early August 1904, Irving, Mallory, and Gibson travelled to the Alps for Mallory's first high-altitude mountaineering. In his final year at Winchester, Mallory studied history instead of mathematics. After sitting his exams, he was awarded a history scholarship, known as a sizarship, to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
1905–09: Magdalene College, Cambridge
In October 1905 Mallory entered Magdalene College to study history; A. C. Benson was his tutor, and became infatuated with Mallory. On 6 February 1907, at Christ's College, Mallory dined with Charles Edward Sayle, under-librarian at Cambridge University Library. At Sayle's house on Trumpington Street, Mallory met undergraduates with whom he established enduring friendships; painter Jacques Raverat, surgeon and author Geoffrey Keynes were among them. He became good friends with poet Rupert Brooke and psychoanalyst James Strachey. On 12 February 1909, Mallory met Geoffrey Winthrop Young and developed a good friendship. Through James and Geoffrey, Mallory got to know their brothers, Lytton Strachey and John Maynard Keynes, who were members of the Bloomsbury Group. Through the Stracheys, he befriended their cousin, painter Duncan Grant, a Bloomsbury member. His letters attest to the flirtatious, homoerotic aspect of these friendships. Following his engagement in 1914, he wrote to one-time sex partner James Strachey: "It can hardly be a shock to you that I desert the ranks of the fashionable homosexualists unless you think I have turned monogamist. But you may be assured that this last catastrophe has not happened."Mallory developed into an accomplished rower at Magdalene. In October 1906, he was elected secretary of the Magdalene Boat Club and captain of boats from 1907 to 1908. Mallory joined the University Fabian Society, and acted as college secretary on the University Women's Suffrage Association committee. The Marlowe Society was established in 1907 and Mallory acted in its first production Doctor Faustus.
Academically, in May 1907, Mallory sat Part I of the history tripos, achieving a third class. In 1908, in Part II, he attained a second class degree. Mallory had to consider a future career. In 1907, he had consulted deputy headmaster of Winchester, Howard Rendall, about becoming a teacher there, but Rendall gave him a stern retort; Mallory informed his tutor, A. C. Benson; "He says that as I have nothing to teach and would probably teach it badly, there is not the least chance of ever getting to Winchester." Rendall suggested he go into the church and Mallory unenthusiastically pondered following in his father's footsteps, contemplating "parish work of some kind ... I'm at variance with so many parsons that I meet. They're excessively good, most of them much better than I can ever hope to be, but their sense of goodness seems sometimes to displace their reason." Benson suggested Mallory return to Magdalene for a fourth year, where he could improve upon his degree, Mallory agreed and settled into rooms at Pythagoras House, a short distance from Magdalene.
In February 1909, Geoffrey Winthrop Young invited Mallory to Wales for a climbing trip at Easter. After Mallory's return to Magdalene, Young sent him an application form for the Climbers' Club, and in May 1909, Mallory was elected a member. The subject for the Members' Prize Essay in 1909 was James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson; and Mallory decided to enter. He was awarded second place; Benson encouraged Mallory to submit his essay for publication and in 1912, his Boswell the Biographer, was published by Smith, Elder & Co. In July 1909, Mallory's education at Magdalene was complete.
1909–10: Interim
In October 1909, the painter Simon Bussy, whose wife Dorothy was the sister of Lytton and James Strachey, invited Mallory to spend the winter with them at their villa in Roquebrune in the Alpes-Maritimes. Mallory, who had recently received a small family inheritance, accepted their offer and travelled to France in early November to stay with them. He stayed in Paris for a month to improve his French by reading, attending the theatre, music hall, Sorbonne lectures, and conversing.In April 1910, Mallory returned to Cambridge, contemplating his career prospects. In May he took a temporary teaching post at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, which lasted two weeks. In July, Mallory received a letter from the headmaster of Charterhouse, an English public school, Gerald Henry Rendall, offering a job teaching Latin, mathematics, history, and French, which Mallory accepted.
1910–14: Charterhouse School
In September 1910, Mallory began teaching at Charterhouse, as an assistant headmaster. One problem was his youthful appearance, and so he was often mistaken by parents for a student. His teaching methods relied on infectious enthusiasm and avuncular mannerisms rather than imposing his authority. He followed the styles of Irving and Benson, who sought to educate through mutual respect, getting to know pupils as individuals and repudiating the authoritarianism of most British schools. Several colleagues developed a hostile attitude towards him, due to his informal teaching methods, which they considered undermined discipline. He recommended students read literature extensively, write essays on subjects such as hypocrisy, candour, and popularity, and he engaged them in discussion on politics and literature. He took them on excursions to places of aesthetic scenery and architectural landmarks.Robert Graves, a student from 1909 to 1914, said Mallory was the best teacher and first genuine friend he ever had. In his autobiography, Good-Bye to All That, Graves wrote fondly of Mallory, who encouraged him in poetry and took him climbing in Snowdon. Irving and Geoffrey Winthrop Young proposed Mallory for the Alpine Club, and in December 1910, he was elected a member. During the summer of 1913, Mallory collaborated with Graves and other students to produce a magazine called Green Chartreuse, intended to rival other school magazines, with its first publication on Old Carthusian Day, 5 July 1913. Mallory presented lectures on Italian painting in spring 1914, engaging students in a "rather philosophical" discussion about Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Raphael.