New Zealand mountaineer. In 1953, with Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay (19141986), he reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the first to climb the world's highest peak. As a member of the Commonwealth Transantarctic Expedition 195758, he was the first person since R F Scott to reach the South Pole overland, on 3 January 1958. He was knighted in 1953.