Sir Edmund Hillary

Roger Croston writes: I have a handwritten letter by George Mallory dated June 14, 1920, who was lost on Everest with Andrew Irvine in 1924. I showed it to Sir Edmund Hillary (obituary, Jan 12) at the Royal Geographical Society, London, after he had lectured there in 1999. I asked Sir Edmund to add his signature next to Mallory’s and said that now I had a unique item — the signature of the man who could have got to the top of Mount Everest alongside the man who did get to the top. Ed Hillary laughed slightly ironically and said, “Yes, he could well have done, but the secret is coming back alive!”

Asif Khan writes: I was privileged to meet Edmund Hillary at a diplomatic reception in Delhi while he was New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India. I asked him if he ever got bored by Indians constantly wanting to know about his climb of Everest.

“Oh no,” he replied with a broad smile. “Everybody asks me if I know Richard Hadlee and only wants to talk about him!”

Monima Wardle writes: Sir Ed was a legend whose humble feet were most definitely on the ground. I had the pleasure of meeting him once at a London lecture when he told the audience that it upset him greatly when people remarked that he and Tenzing Norgay had “conquered” Everest.

Sir Ed felt strongly that this sacred mountain, alias Chomolongma, or “Mother Goddess of the Universe” had “allowed” them to climb it successfully.

Helen Woodman writes: The death of Sir Edmund Hillary (obituary, Jan 12) has brought back many memories for my mother, Betty Genn, the wife of “Bob” Genn, MC, RE, then Major, as she volunteered her services to Colonel John Hunt to help with the preparation of equipment for the 1953 Everest expedition at a warehouse beside the Thames at Wapping. As a fellow Antipodean, but from the tropics of Queensland, she decided that she would take on the task of sewing Cash’s nametapes on to nearly every item of Edmund Hillary’s clothing for the expedition. Other expedition members had UK family to do this task for them. For many weeks she travelled up to Wapping by train from Cove, Hants, helping to sort and assemble the mountain of equipment. Mother remembers how cold she was when sitting in the warehouse sewing on the nametapes, never taking off her heavy overcoat.

My mother, now in her 85th year, remains proud that her sewing reached the top of Everest in Her Majesty’s Coronation year and of the small part she played in the history of the ascent of Everest.