Michael Phelps Ward,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(26 March 1925 – 7 October 2005) was an English

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

and an expedition doctor on the

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

first ascent of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

with

Sir 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 reached th ...

. He argued that the conquest of the mountain was a victory for science since doctors had finally figured out how to cope with the physiological effects of high altitude. His discoveries a few years earlier in the Royal Geographical Society archives of the Milne-Hink map and unofficial RAF photos of the Everest area helped to make the summit ascent possible. He had been on the earlier 1951 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition which pioneered the route used by the 1953 expedition. He was asked by

Eric Shipton Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer. Early years Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was e ...

to go on the

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 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition, 1951 Everest expedition with another Briti ...

, but was completing his national military service and sitting a surgery examination. He was a pioneer in high altitude medicine and physiology, which he researched with Griffith Pugh on the 1960-61 Silver Hut expedition. In 1972, he wrote an autobiography ''In'' ''This Short Span'' covering the first forty years of his life and mountaineering adventures. He was a supporter of the National Health Service and the East End of London rather than Harley Street. He was a lecturer in Clinical Surgery at the London Hospital Medical College 1975–93, and Consultant Surgeon at St Andrew's Hospital, Bow 1964-93 and Newham Hospital 1983–93. In 1982, he was awarded the Founder’s Medal of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

; his citation reading: ‘For high-altitude medical research and leadership of the British Mount Kongur Expedition.’ In 1983, he was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE). He lived most of his life in London, where he wrote numerous articles for mountaineering and medical journals, as well as four books including ''Everest: A Thousand Years of Exploration'' (2003).

References

*''Obituary'' in "The Times" (London) of 17 October 2005; Issue 68520 page 56.

References

Further reading