1886-1924

British Mountaineer

George Leigh Mallory was a British mountaineer who led three pioneering expeditions to Mount Everest in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and Tibet in the 1920s. On the third expedition to Everest in 1924, Mallory and climbing partner Andrew Irvine (d. 1924) made an attempt at the summit but disappeared in stormy weather, never to return. Whether they reached the summit before they died is not known. A 1999 expedition found Mallory's frozen body at 27,000 feet (8,229 m) on Everest's north face, but the mystery of whether the summit was reached still remains unsolved.

Mallory, the son of an English clergyman, grew up in a conventional household. As a child he had an adventuresome spirit and enjoyed exploring and climbing rocks. He entered Magdalene College in 1905 to study history and train as a schoolmaster. His career as a teacher was interrupted by World...