Edmund HillarySir Edmund Hillary was born on 20 July 1919 in New Zealand, and served in the New Zealand Air Force in World War II. He was a participant in the 1951 and 1952 Everest expeditions and, on 29 May 1953, he and the Nepalese mountaineer Tenzing Norgay becme the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

After being knighted following the ascent, he achieved many more adventuring 'firsts' in surroundings as varied as Antarctica and the Ganges. He established the Himalayan Trust, an organisation devoted to improving the lives of the Himalayan people, which has built schools, hospitals and infrastructure for the isolated mountain communities. He has two surviving children by his first wife, Louise, who died in a plane crash with their third child. He is now married to June, widow of his Antarctic partner, Peter Mulgrew. Sir Edmund and Lady Hillary live in Auckland, and devote most of their time to the work of the Himalayan Trust. Read More Read Less