KNIGHTED AT PALACE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 7

KNIGHTED AT PALACE

Momentous Day For Hillary

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 17.

Knighthoods were conferred on Colonel Sir John Hunt and Sir Edmund Hillary by the Queen at Buckingham Palace last evening. Tensing was invested with the George Medal. ■ The Queen, who was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, presented to each expedition member a Coronation Medal, specially' engraved round the edge: “Mount Everest Expedition.”

“Receiving the accolade was a wonderful experience—so very simple but so very impressive—and so very humbling,” said Sir Edmund Hillary after what he said had been the most momentous day in his whole life. He had attended a Buckingham Palace garden party, received the accolade, and had been to a dinner party given by the British Government. At the end of the evening, he stood for hours receiving congratulations as one of the notable guests at the magnificent reception given by the Government in honour of the Everest men in London’s Lancaster House. Coloured reproductions of Everest films were placed round the walls of Lancaster House. At the reception all members of the Everest party wore the medals presented to them earlier by the Queen. Each was the centre of an interested group. Sir John Hunt, calm and dignified, received congratulations on the success of the expedition. The smiling Tensing held his right hand with his left to relieve the strain of handshakes. Beside him was his wife, a little overawed with it all, and his two daughters, who obviously cared nothing for the magnificence of the surroundings. They soon retired to a corner and sucked soft drinks through straws.

Quietly moving from group to group was the Duke of Edinburgh, who stayed right till the end of the party. “He is enjoying himself immensely,”’ the Duke’s A.D.C. (Lieutenant-Com-mander Michael Parker), was heard telling Lord Woolton, who was acting as official host for the Government. This was the third time the Everest party had met the Duke that day. They had seen him at the garden party, talked at length with him at the investiture, and again at dinner. Mr George Lowe commented on the “wonderful knowledge both the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh had of everything connected with the expedition, even to small details. The Duke’s interest was extraordinary,” he said. At the dinner party which preceded the reception, the Duke of Edinburgh proposed the toast to Sir John Hunt and members of the expedition. Guests at the reception included leading members of the Government and Opposition, and several members of previous Everest expeditions. Among them were Mr Eric Shipton, leader of last year’s reconnaissance of the southern approaches of Everest, and Dr. Wyss-Dunant and Raymond Lambert, of the Swiss expedition to Everest last year, who flew from Switzerland specially for the occasion.