COLONEL JOHN HUNT (1910-1998) A He was a sensitive and intensely human person. With his engaging blue eyes and confident handshake, he immediately put one at ease and his warmth and determination moulded a group of individualists into a happy and united team. We remained friends ever since. Everest changed all our lives. B After heart surgery in May 1995, he reduced his public engagements, but it gave him enormous pleasure last May to preside for the last time over the extended "Everest Family” at our 45th anniversary reunion in Snowdonia. He died on 7 November 1998 and is survived by his wife Joy and their four daughters. C Four days earlier Hillary and Tenzing had reached the highest point on Earth for the first time - 29,028 feet (8,848 metres). However it was the leader of this British expedition, Colonel John Hunt, who deserved the highest accolade of knighthood. D Then came a peace-keeping role between dissident groups in Greece following liberation from the Germans, for which he was appointed CBE. So when I first met him at the Royal Geographical Society to be interviewed for a possible place in his 1953 Everest team, I might have expected a brusque and conventional military man. I was wrong. E Hunt gave up a promising army career to be the first director of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, becoming a role model and inspiration to youth, influencing them to take up challenging outdoor pursuits. Created a life peer in 1966 and Knight of the Garter in 1979, his record of public service was exceptional; advising on relief after the Nigerian civil war, on police in Northern Ireland; first chairman of the Parole Board; president of the Council for National Parks; the list was endless. He was elected president of both the Alpine Club and the RGS; wrote the best-selling The Ascent of Everest in an astonishing 30 days and a volume of his autobiography, Life is Meeting. F He had climbed to 27,350 feet in support of the assault, but it was his battle with proven powers of leadership and meticulous planning that were the hallmarks of success. Following his father into the army, he was commissioned in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, serving in India in the 1930s and earning a Distinguished Service Order in theatre-fighting of the Italian campaign of World War II. G "Everest - The Crowning Glory” was the headline greeting the crowds outside Buckingham Palace on 2 June 1953.