Famous Mett’s Braces Make News In Britain

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 13

Famous Mett’s Braces Make News In Britain

(Rec 10 p.m.) LONDON, May 15. The braces of famous men were in the news in Britain today The braces in question once held up trousers of Sir John Hunt the leader of the victorious Mount Everest expedition, and Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, who also led some victorious “expeditions.” Sir John Hunt’s braces were sold yesterday for £5 at a charity auction in Malvern. Worcestershire A “Daily Express” columnist said they were sold to a Worcestershire man as "the highest braces in the world” because Sir John Hunt had worn them on the Everest climb But. the columnist said, the buyer was “gypped.” "Even supposing Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing were wearing belts, there were other braces that climbed higher.” he said. The columnist said George Lowe, another Everest climber, had told him last' night: “I was

wearing braces, so were three others, and we all went higher than Sii John.” On another page, the “Daily Express” reported a “great uproar yesterday over the curious affair ol Field Marsha) Montgomery’s braces “ It all began the newspaper said, when Army headquarters at Aldershot told Fleet Street that once when Lord Montgomery was fighting a battle in Normandy his braces broke and he had to borrow a pair from his batman. “This was news indeed.” the “Daily Express" said. “A battle, it is said, had once been lost for want of a horse-shoe nail. But a pair of braces!” But eventually it had turned out that the braces did not break in Normandy at all but at the War Office years afterwards. The braces were, in fact, in the Royal Army Service Corps Museum with a letter which said that the field marshal was going to the theatre when the braces broke. Lord Montgomery borrowed a pair from a sergeantmajor.