Biography Lord John Hunt KG, CBE, DSO
John Hunt was born in 1910 and was educated at Marlborough College. He lost his father in the First World War while still a boy. His uncles, who were all in the Indian Army, decided, that he should follow in the family tradition. Although he was not an enthusiastic army man, he passed in and out of Sandhurst as top of his year.
As a soldier he was posted out to India, then in the Second World War served in Egypt, Italy, Palestine and Greece. After the war, as a Brigadier and working under Field Marshal Montgomery, he was on postings in the Middle East and France.
He had begun climbing in the Swiss Alps when he was fifteen. As a consequence, mountains were to become the great obsession of his life. His list of climbs includes, apart from all the mountainous countries of Europe, the Himalaya and Nepal, Kashmir and the Karakoram, Pakistan, Sarawak, the Caucasus, Greenland, the Yukon and Peru.
Hunt's greatest challenge came when he was asked to head the British expedition to Mt. Everest in 1953. Leading 34 men, twenty of them Sherpas, Hunt masterminded the assault which led to Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing reaching the earth's highest point on 29 May 1953. News of the triumph arrived in London just in time for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and triggered euphoric celebrations. Britain had a new hero in the person of John Hunt. He was created a Knight Bachelor soon afterwards, and a Life Peer in 1966.
Since then he has held numerous posts in which he has served the British government and particularly the country's youth. He has been President of the Alpine Club, the Climber's Club and the British Mountaineering Council. A keen skier, he has also been President of the National Ski Federation. In addition he was President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1978 to 1980.
Now well over eighty, Lord John Hunt is still fit and active. He has never relished fame but has always been motivated by the wish to help others. He is also a great believer in challenge. No doubt thinking back to Everest, he says: «There only ought to be something unobtainable in this world to keep people humble.»
Lord John Hunt died in November 1998.
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