Sir Robert Charles Evans M.D., DSc, (19 October 1918 – 5 December 1995) was a British mountaineer, surgeon, and educator. He was leader of the

1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition The 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition succeeded in climbing the Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world, for the first time. The expedition complied with a request from the Sikkim authorities that the summit should not be tr ...

and deputy leader of the

1953 British Mount Everest expedition The 1953 British Mount Everest expedition was the ninth mountaineering expedition to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and the first confirmed to have succeeded when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit on 29 May 1953. ...

, both of which were successful.

Biography

Born in Liverpool, Evans was raised in Wales, ( Derwen), United Kingdom, and became a fluent

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

speaker. He was educated at

Shrewsbury School Shrewsbury School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13 –18) in Shrewsbury. Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by Royal Charter, it was originally a boarding school for boys; girls have been admitted into ...

and

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

, where he studied medicine. He qualified as a medical doctor in 1942 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Mountaineer

He had previously climbed many of the classic routes in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

and put this experience to good use during travels in Sikkim and the Himalaya during the war. After demobilisation in 1947, he was a surgeon in Liverpool until 1957. Evans was on Eric Shipton's

1952 British Cho Oyu expedition The 1952 British expedition to Cho Oyu () the ''Turquoise Goddess'' was organized by the Joint Himalayan Committee. It had been hoped to follow up the 1951 Everest expedition with another British attempt on Everest in 1952, but Nepal had accepted ...

, a preparation for 1953. Evans was then John Hunt's deputy leader on the

1953 British Mount Everest Expedition The 1953 British Mount Everest expedition was the ninth mountaineering expedition to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and the first confirmed to have succeeded when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit on 29 May 1953. ...

, which made the

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

in 1953. Evans and

Tom Bourdillon Thomas Duncan Bourdillon ( ; 16 March 1924 – 29 July 1956) was an English mountaineer and member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition which made the first ascent of Mount Everest. He died in the Valais, Switzerland, on 29 July 1956 age ...

were the first assault party, and made the first ascent of the South Summit. They had come within three hundred feet of the main summit of Everest on 26 May 1953, but were forced to turn back due to tiredness, lack of enough oxygen for the return and malfunctioning of the (experimental closed-circuit) oxygen apparatus. The summit of Everest was reached by their teammates

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reache ...

and

Tenzing Norgay Tenzing Norgay (; ''tendzin norgyé''; perhaps 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi, and also referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer. He was one of the first two people known to reach the su ...

in the second assault party three days later, on 29 May 1953. Evans was the leader of the successful

which first climbed

Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā (), and Khangchendzonga, is the third highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the ...

, the world's third highest peak. The following year he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society's

Patron's Medal The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...

. He was the Principal of the University College of North Wales (now called Bangor University) from 1958 to 1984. He was President of the

Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of whi ...

from 1967 to 1970. In 1969 he was knighted in a list of honours celebrating the occasion of the investiture of the Prince of Wales, for services to mountaineering.

Author

* *

Additional sources

*Robert Charles Evans 1918–1995, obituary by Michael Ward, ''Geographical Journal'', Vol. 162, No. 2 (Jul., 1996), pp. 257–58 *Charles Clarke, "Evans, Sir (Robert) Charles (1918–1995)
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''
Oxford University Press, 2004

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Charles 1918 births 1995 deaths Sportspeople from Liverpool Welsh explorers Welsh mountain climbers 20th-century Welsh writers Presidents of the Alpine Club (UK) Royal Army Medical Corps officers British Army personnel of World War II 20th-century British medical doctors Edmund Hillary