Charles Evans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Robert Charles Evans M.D., DSc, (19 October 1918 – 5 December 1995), was a British mountaineer, surgeon, and educator.
Born in Liverpool, he was raised in Wales and became a fluent Welsh speaker. Educated at Shrewsbury School and Oxford University, where he studied medicine, he qualified as a doctor in 1942 and joined the Royal Army Medical Corp. He had previously climbed many of the classic routes in the Alps 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 John Hunt's deputy leader on the first ascent of Everest in 1953. With Tom Bourdillon, he made the first ascent of the South Summit, coming within three hundred feet of the main summit of Everest on 26 May 1953, but was forced to turn back. Everest was conquered by their team-mates Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay three days later, on 29 May 1953.
Evans was also the leader of the expedition which conquered Kangchenjunga in 1955 for the first time.
He served as the Principal of the University College of North Wales (now called Bangor University), from 1958 to 1984. He was President of the Alpine Club from 1967 to 1970.
[edit] Author
- Kangchenjunga: The Untrodden Peak (1956)
- On Climbing (1956)
[edit] References
- Robert Charles Evans 1918-1995, obituary by Michael Ward, Geographical Journal, Vol. 162, No. 2 (Jul., 1996), pp. 257-258
- Charles Clarke, ‘Evans, Sir (Robert) Charles (1918–1995)’, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60362
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography], Oxford University Press, 2004
