George Band
{{short description|English mountain climber}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix =
| name = George Band
| honorific_suffix = OBE
| image = George Band.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Band in 1990
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date |1929|2|2|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Taiwan
| baptised =
| death_date = {{death date and age|2011|08|26|1929|2|2|df=yes}}
| death_place = Hampshire, England
| resting_place =
| father = Edward Band
| resting_place_coordinates =
| monuments =
| nationality = British
| education = Eltham College
| alma_mater = Queens' College, Cambridge
Imperial College, London
| occupation = Geologist
|known_for = Mountaineer
| years_active =
| era =
| employer = Shell
| organization =
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| children = 3
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}}
George Christopher Band {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|OBE}} (2 February 1929 – 26 August 2011) was an English mountaineer. He was the youngest climber on the 1953 British expedition to Mount Everest on which Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to ascend the mountain. In 1955, he and Joe Brown were the first climbers to ascend Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world.
Biography
George Band was born in Taiwan where his parents, Presbyterian missionaries, had lived since 1912. The island had been under Japanese control since 1895 and, by good fortune, the family left a fortnight before the attack on Pearl Harbor.{{cite web | title = Queens' College Record 2012 | website =Queen’s College, Cambridge| date= 2012| access-date = 2 October 2024 |url = https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/files/publicationFiles/queens-college-2012ocr.pdf#page=77 }} When in the UK he was educated at Eltham College, that was followed by National Service with the Royal Corps of Signals (1947-1949).{{cite magazine | magazine= High | title = BMC Personality - George Band | date= April 1986| issue = #41 | issn= |publisher = | location= Sheffield |pages= 29 }} He then read Natural Sciences, with a specialism in Geology, at Queens' College, Cambridge. His Cambridge degree was punctuated by the Everest expedition and, after completing his final year on his return from Nepal, he then studied Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College, London.
Mountaineering
Band's earliest rock climbing exploits took place in 1946 in the Derbyshire Peak District, after his first attempt he wrote that he was, ‘totally hooked on learning to climb’. During his National Service he was stationed at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire. A climbing group had recently been started at the garrison and that provided the opportunity for regular weekend climbing trips.
He started climbing in the Alps while a student at Queens' and he soon became President of the University Mountaineering Club (1951-1952).{{cite news | title = George Band obituary | work =The Guardian| date= 28 August 2011| first =Ed | last = Douglas | access-date =1 October 2024 |url = https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/aug/28/george-band-obituary }} His first alpine season was to the Dauphiné Alps with Chris Brasher in 1950 and the following year he spent the summer alpine season in the Chamonix area. Unfortunately, post-war currency restrictions meant that travellers could take no more than £30 out of the country, so spending long periods in the Alps gaining experience was difficult for British climbers, even if they had plenty of available time and personal financial resources. That difficulty was neatly circumvented in 1952 because a Canadian geologist/mountaineer/millionaire agreed to pay Band, and Chorley, to take core samples from the ice on Monte Rosa, they were paid in Swiss Francs and the work at high-altitude also meant that they were well acclimatised for their mountaineering.{{cite journal | title = In Memoriam – Lord Chorley (1930-2016) | journal =Alpine Journal| date=2016| first =John | last = Innerdale | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#120 |issue=364 | pages= 370–375 | access-date = 12 September 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_2016_files/AJ%202016%20363-412%20In%20Memoriam.pdf#page=5 }} Band had a particularly successful alpine season in 1952, climbing in the Valais and Chamonix mainly with Roger Chorley but also in the company of John Streetly, Ian McNaught-Davis and Arthur Dolphin.{{cite journal | title = Climbs at Zermatt, Chamonix and Courmayeur | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1953| first =R.R.E | last = Chorley | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#59 | pages= 23–32 | access-date = 2 October 2024 |url = http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1953_files/AJ59%201953%2023-32%20Chorley%20Climbs.pdf }}
Although only having three alpine seasons his alpine record was sufficiently impressive to win him a place on the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition. On that expedition Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Mount Everest, Band played an important
role in forcing a route through the Khumbu Icefall and at a later stage in the expedition he reached Camp VII at {{convert|7300|m|ft}}. {{cite book |title=Everest |isbn=9780713911084 |last1=Unsworth|first1=Walt| year=1981| pages = 324–5|publisher=Allen Lane }} He was aged just 23 when selected and was the youngest climber on the team.{{cite book | title = The Ascent of Everest | date=1953| first = John| last = Hunt |page=29| publisher =Hodder & Stoughton | isbn=978-1-4447-6090-3| access-date = 1 October 2024 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KUsG2hOZspcC&q=the+ascent+of+everest+hunt }}
In 1954 he was a member of a Cambridge University party attempting the first ascent of Rakaposhi. The team was led by Alfred Tissières and also included Roger Chorley and Major General Mian Hayaud Din, the Chief of General Staff of the Pakistan Army and liaison officer. They approached by the south-west spur but only reached {{convert|6340|m|ft}}.{{cite journal | title = To the Monk's Head on Rakaposhi | journal =Himalayan Journal| date= 1956| first =Roger | last = Chorley | volume =19 | pages= 109–119 | access-date = 6 April 2024 |url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/19/9/to-the-monks-head-on-rakaposhi/ }}{{cite web | title = Cambridge Univ MC Rakaposhi 1954 | website =MEF – Mount Everest Foundation| access-date =6 April 2024 |url = https://www.mef.org.uk/expeditions/cambridge-univ-mc-rakaposhi-1954 }}George Band « Road to Rakaposhi, Hodder and Stoughton Publisher (1955) {{ISBN|1112879978}} A contemporary film of the expedition is in the public domain.{{cite web| title = Rakaposhi Expedition by Cambridge University Mountaineering Club in 1954 | website =You Tube | date =November 2017 | access-date = 6 April 2024 |url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nborGHRlhwY }}
Two years later, on 25 May 1955, he and Joe Brown became the first climbers to ascend Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition. Out of respect for the religious feelings of the people of Nepal and Sikkim, they stopped about ten feet below the actual summit.{{cite journal |author1=Evans, C. |author2=Band, G. |title=Kangchenjunga Climbed |journal=The Geographical Journal |year=1956 |volume=122 |issue=1 | issn=0016-7398 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.2307/1791469 |jstor=1791469 |bibcode=1956GeogJ.122....1E}} Extracts relating to the summit days, from the diary that Band kept during the trip, have been published online.{{cite web | title = George Band Diary Extracts | website =Everest 70 | date= 2023| first =George | last = Band | access-date = 3 October 2024 |url = https://everest70.com/kangchenjunga-diary-extract-1955-george-band-summit-climb/ }} It was 22 years before the mountain was climbed again.
In 1956 he joined an expedition led by John Kempe to attempt the first ascent of Huaguruncho in Peru.{{cite web | title = Huagaruncho | website =MEF – Mount Everest Foundation| access-date = 14 September 2024 |url = https://www.mef.org.uk/expeditions/huagaruncho }} As well as Kempe and Band the party included, Dr. Don Stafford Matthews, John Streetly, Jack Tucker and Mike Westmacott. Streetly and Westmacott successfully reached the summit on 17 August 1956.{{cite journal | title = The Exploration of Huagaruncho: A Peruvian Journey | journal =Geographical Journal | issn=0016-7398 | date=December 1957| first1 =G. C. | last1 = Band | first2 = M. H. | last2 = Westmacott | first3 = John | last3 = Kempe | volume =#123 | issue =4 | pages= ‘437–447 | access-date = 14 September 2024 |url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/1790344 | doi=10.2307/1790344 | jstor =1790344 | bibcode =1957GeogJ.123..437B | url-access =subscription }} Band, Streetly, and Westmacott subsequently climbed the west peak.{{cite book | last = Westmacott| first = Michael | title=Mountain World 1958/59 |chapter= Huagaruncho | editor-last=Barnes | editor-first=Malcolm |year=1958 | publisher=George Allen and Unwin | pages=65–75 | isbn= }}
After the successful ascent of Everest John Hunt obtain permission from the "U.S.S.R. Mountaineering Section", part of the Soviet Central Sports Council, for an expedition to the Caucasus Mountains to climb in the area of the Bezengi Glacier and Ushba in 1958.{{cite book | title = The Red Snows | date=1960| first1 =Sir John | last1 = Hunt | first2 = Christopher| last2 = Brasher |publisher =Hutchinson |pages= | access-date = 3 October 2024 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=DBIhAQAAMAAJ }} George Band, Chris Brasher and Alan Blackshaw were included in Hunt's party and a number of Soviet mountaineers joined them on various ascents, including Yevgeniy (Eugene) Gippenreiter. Band made the first ascent of the south buttress of the east peak of Dykh-Tau {{convert|5198|m|ft}}.{{cite journal | title = British Caucasus Expedition 1958 | journal =Himalayan Journal| date= 1958| first =Ralph | last = Jones | volume =#21 | pages= 126–133 | access-date = 3 October 2024 |url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/21/15/british-caucasus-expedition-1958/ }}
Following these early mountaineering successes, Band spent most of his professional life in oil and gas exploration with Shell. One of his early postings took him to Venezuela and his first evening in the country coincided with a visit by Lord Tangley, then President of the Alpine Club. They were invited for dinner at the British embassy by Douglas Busk, the British Ambassador, who was also a mountaineer.{{cite journal | title = Valedictory Address | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1990| first =George | last = Band | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#95 | issue =339 | pages= 1–10 | access-date = 12 September 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1990-91_files/AJ%201990%201-10%20Band%20Valedictory.pdf }} That meeting resulted in a visit to the Sierra Nevada de Mérida and the first ascents of the rock spire of El Vertigo and of the south-west face of El Abanic.{{cite journal | title = The Sierra Nevada de Mérida | journal =Alpine Journal| date=1962| first =Douglas | last = Busk | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#67 | pages= 280–190 | access-date = 14 September 2024 |url = http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1962_files/AJ%201962%20280-290%20Busk%20Merida.pdf }}
Professional Life
Other postings with Shell took him to Bangladesh and Oman as well as The Hague. Later he moved into executive roles including an appointment as Managing Director of Shell in Sarawak and Sabah and from 1976-1980 he was Director of Shell UK Exploration and Production when their major North Sea oil discoveries were starting to come into production.{{cite web | title = The Development of North Sea Oil and Gas | website =King’s College, London| date= 2002| first =Gillian | last = Staerck | access-date = 3 October 2024 |url = https://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/assets/icbh-witness/northsea.pdf }} In 1983 he was appointed Director General of the UK Offshore Operators Association, representing oil and gas companies operating on the UK continental shelf{{cite journal | title = In Memoriam: George Christopher Band OBE 1929 – 2011 | journal =Alpine Journal| date=2012| first =Stephen | last = Goodwin | issn= 0065-6569 |volume =#116 |issue = 360 | pages= 396–410 | access-date = 1 October 2024 |url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_2012_files/AJ%202012%20394-427%20In%20Memoriam.pdf#page=2 }} and after retirement in 1990 he became Vice-Chairman of Premier Oil (1990-1993).
Later Life
He was President of the Alpine Club (1987–1989) and the British Mountaineering Council (1996-1999). He continued to travel widely after retirement, leading adventure treks to India, Central Asia, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan and in 2005, aged 76, made the trek to re-visit the south-west Base Camp of Kangchenjunga in Nepal.
He wrote the books, Road to Rakaposhi and in 2003, Everest 50 Years on Top of the World (the official history - Mount Everest Foundation, Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club).{{cite book | title = Everest: The MEF Authorised 50TH Anniversary Volume: 50 years on top of the World | date=2003| first = George| last =Band | isbn = 9780007147489 |publisher =Collins }} In 2007 he wrote " Summit", a book celebrating 150 years of the Alpine Club. He was Chairman of the Himalayan Trust (UK). George Band was an Appeal Patron for BSES Expeditions, a youth development charity that operates challenging scientific research expeditions to remote wilderness environments.{{cite web | title = George Band OBE (1929 – 2011) | website =British Mountaineering Council| date= 30 August 2011| first =Tony | last = Ryan | access-date = 1 October 2024 |url = https://services.thebmc.co.uk/george-band-obe-1929-2011 }}
George Band was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.{{London Gazette|issue=58929|date=31 December 2008|page=9|supp=y }}
George Band died of natural causes in Hampshire, England, UK, on 26 August 2011, aged 82.
Books published
- Road to Rakaposhi (1955)[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/8728507/George-Band.html Obituary of George Band, The Daily Telegraph, 28/08/2011]
- Everest: 50 Years on Top of the World (2003)
- Summit (2006), a celebration of 150 years of the Alpine Club.
Footnotes
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Category:Alumni of Imperial College London
Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge
Category:English mountain climbers
Category:Historians of mountaineering
Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Presidents of the Alpine Club (UK)
Category:People educated at Eltham College
Category:20th-century British Army personnel