<Li> Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire </Li> <Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Signature </Th> </Tr> <P> Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE OSN (20 July 1919--11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist . On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest . They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt . </P> <P> Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school . He made his first major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier . He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II . Prior to the 1953 Everest expedition, Hillary had been part of the British reconnaissance expedition to the mountain in 1951 as well as an unsuccessful attempt to climb Cho Oyu in 1952 . As part of the Commonwealth Trans - Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958 . He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest . </P>

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