George Mallory

George Mallory
Born	George Herbert Leigh Mallory (1886-06-18)18 June 1886 Mobberley, Cheshire, England
Died	8 or 9 June 1924 (aged 37) North Face (Everest), Tibet
Cause of death	Mountaineering accident
Body discovered	1 May 1999
Alma mater	Magdalene College, Cambridge
Occupation(s)	Teacher, mountaineer
Spouse	Christiana Ruth Turner ​ ​ (m. 1914)​
Children	3
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1915–1918
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles/wars	First World War

Olympic medal record
Men's Alpinism
Representing  United Kingdom
Olympic Games
	1924 Chamonix	Everest expedition

George Herbert Leigh-Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who participated in the first three British Mount Everest expeditions from the early to mid-1920s.

Born in Mobberley, Cheshire, Mallory became a student at Winchester College, where a teacher recruited him for an excursion in the Alps, and he developed a strong natural ability for climbing. After graduating from Magdalene College, Cambridge, he taught at Charterhouse School while honing his climbing skills in the Alps and English Lake District. He served in the British Army during the First World War and fought at the Somme.

After the war, Mallory returned to Charterhouse before resigning to participate in the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition. In 1922, he took part in a second expedition to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, in which his team achieved a world altitude record of 27,300 ft (8,321 m) using supplemental oxygen. Once, when asked by a reporter why he wanted to climb Everest, Mallory purportedly replied, "Because it's there."

During the 1924 expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, disappeared on the Northeast Ridge of Everest. The pair were last seen alive approximately 800 vertical feet (240 metres) from the summit, sparking debate as to whether one or both of them reached the summit before they died. Mallory's body was found in 1999 by the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition.