Not long after joining Victoria School in Kurseong (1950), I was placed in a House.

There were three houses in VS. Kellas, Irvine and Mallory.

I soon learnt that they were all named after men with a Mt. Everest connection.

Kellas was named after Dr. Kellas. Kellas died on the approaches to Mt. Everest in an early expedition.

While George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Comyn Irvine (known as Sandy), were last seen "climbing strongly for the summit" on 6th June 1924. They were not seen alive again.

In 1999 an expedition went in to try to find the bodies of the two men. The body of Mallory was found. It is reported on in the book, "Ghosts on Everest -The Search for Mallory and Irvine." written by Jochen Hemmleb, Larry Johnson and Eric Simonson. The copy that I have is published in the UK by Pan Books and appears to be cataloged under the nomenclature of "Fiction" (sic) .

In November 2001 I visited my brother who lives in the Wirral. An area on the south side of the River Mersey. He told me that he was a member of the Local Historical Society, and the was going to a talk on Mt. Everest in a few nights time, would I be interested in going with him.

When I got there I found that it was a talk to be given by a Great Niece of Sandy Irvine, Julie Summers. Julie's book is called "Fearless on Everest" and she gave a most interesting talk on how she had located all the information about Irvine.

In turn, I learnt for example, that both Mallory and Irvine had connections with the Wirral. And indeed, the local council had named two streets after them. And one after Everest!

Later I visited the local Museum where to my astonishment there was a small section on Irvine and a small sculpture on show in the foyer.