Letters from British climber George Mallory published by Cambridge Uni
He disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924
Last updated 22nd Apr 2024
Letters from the British climber George Mallory, who disappeared on Mount Everest in 1924, to his wife Ruth have been published online by his former Cambridge University college.
The mountaineer and explorer was 37 years old when he and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine vanished close to the summit of the highest mountain in the world.
Mallory's body was found 75 years later in 1999.
There is still debate about whether the pair made it to the top of the mountain.
Mallory studied at Magdalene College in Cambridge before becoming a schoolmaster, serving in France during the First World War before returning to England in 1919.
He was a member of Britain's Alpine Club and it was on his third expedition to Everest that he vanished.
When asked why he wanted to climb Everest, Mallory reportedly said "because it's there".
The first documented summit of Mount Everest was not until 1953, by New Zealand climber Edmund Hillary with Tibetan mountaineer Tenzing Norgay.
Mallory's former Cambridge college, Magdalene, has published a collection of letters online in the centenary year of Mallory's disappearance.
The majority of the correspondence is between him and his wife Ruth from the time of their engagement in 1914 until his death on Everest in 1924.
It includes the last letter Mallory wrote to her before his final Everest summit attempt.
In the letter, he said the odds were "50 to 1 against us".
"Darling I wish you the best I can - that your anxiety will be at an end before you get this - with the best news. Which will also be the quickest," he wrote.
"It is 50 to 1 against us but we'll have a whack yet & do ourselves proud."
He signed off the letter: "Great love to you. Ever your loving, George."
The only surviving letter from the Everest period in the archive from Ruth Mallory to her husband is also published online.