First Knight Memorialised

Sir Edmund Hillary was honoured by the Queen at a ceremony in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. To a full congregation, Sarah, his daughter, read Allen Curnow’s elegiac poem You Will Know When You Get There. The baritone Jonathan Lemalu sang Mendelssohn’s aria Lord God of Abraham. Peter Hillary said his father was most proud of the work he had done with the Sherpas of Nepal, building schools and hospitals, and earning the respect of the people who had worked alongside him in the Himalayas. Sir Edmund, his son said, was revered among the people he loved best. “And it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Sir Edmund Hillary: 20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008