Mike Westmacott
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{{Infobox person | name = Mike Westmacott | image = Mike Westmacott 1993.jpg | caption = | nationality = British | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1925|4|12}} | birth_place = Babbacombe, Torquay, Devon | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2012|6|20|1925|4|12}} | death_place = Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria | occupation = Statistician and economist | spouse = | father = | relatives = | known_for = member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition | education = | alma_mater = Corpus Christi College, Oxford | honours = }}
Michael Horatio Westmacott was born on 12 April 1925 at Coombe House, St George's Crescent, Babbacombe, Torquay, Devon. He died on 20 June 2012 in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria. Westmacott was a prominent British mountaineer who was a member of the team which made the first ascent of Mount Everest.{{cite news|author=Ed Douglas |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/22/mike-westmacott |title=Mike Westmacott obituary |work=The Guardian|date= 22 June 2012|accessdate=2012-06-23 |location=London}}
Biography
Westmacott was born on 12 April 1925 at Coombe House, St George's Crescent in Babbacombe, Torquay, Devon. He was the oldest of three children of Horatio Westmacott, who served in the Royal Navy, and Irene Mary Juanita Gwennap Moore. His sisters were Monica Mary Westmacott and Catherine Penelope Westmacott.
Westmacott was educated at Radley College, Radley near Abingdon, Oxfordshire and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where, after the war, he read mathematics.{{cite journal | title = In Memoriam: Michael Westmacott (1925-2012)| url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/68/20/in-memoriam/ | access-date = 23 May 2025 | journal = Himalayan Journal | date =2013 | first = Stephen | last = Goodwin }}
During World War II he served as an officer with the British Indian Army Corps of Engineers in Burma. In Burma he was involved in building bridges with the King George V's Bengal Sappers and Miners with 150 Japanese PoWs under his command.
After the war Westmacott worked for some years as an agricultural statistician at Rothamsted Expermental Station. In 1957 he married Sally, Sarah Ellen Seddon. In the early 1960's he started working for Shell International as an economist and for a period from 1963 he was stationed in the US.{{cite journal | title = Arrigetch | url = https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1967_files/AJ%201967%20109-116%20Westmacott%20Arrigetch.pdf | journal =Alpine Journal | date =1967 | page = 109-116 | issn = 0065-6569 | volume =#72 | first = Michael | last=Westmacott | access-date = 23 May 2025}}
He retired in 1985 and moved to the Lake District. On 20 June 2012 he died in Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria.
Mountaineering
Westmacott climbed extensively in the United Kingdom and the European Alps before becoming a member of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition which was led by John Hunt. While Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were making the first ascent of the {{convert|8848|m|ft|abbr=on}} Everest mountain in 1953, it was Westmacott and his team of Sherpas who kept open the expedition's vital line of supply and return.
In 1956 he joined John Kempe, George Band, John Streetly, John William Tucker and Dr Donald Stafford Matthews{{cite book | title = Medicine My Passport | first =Donald Stafford |last = Matthews | url = https://books.google.com/books/about/Medicine_My_Passport.html?id=rzIz8DfI-6gC | publisher = G. G. Harrap | date = 1957 | access-date = 23 May 2025 }} on an expedition to the Peruvian Andes.{{cite web | title = Huagaruncho | website =MEF – Mount Everest Foundation| access-date = 14 September 2024 |url = https://www.mef.org.uk/expeditions/huagaruncho }} Streetly and Westmacott successfully made the first ascent of the {{convert|5723|m|ft}} Huagaruncho on 17 August 1956.{{cite journal | title = The Exploration of Huagaruncho: A Peruvian Journey | journal =Geographical Journal| 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 }}{{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= }}
Whilst based in the US he joined a small party in 1964 on the first successful rock climbing expedition to the Arrigetch Peaks of Alaska. Westmacott and his wife were members of the teams which made first ascents of several of the area's granite spires.{{cite journal | title = The Granite Towers of the Arrigetch, Brooks Range | first = Jeanne | last = Bergen | url = https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12196531500/The-Granite-Towers-of-Arrigetch-Brooks-Range | journal = American Alpine Journal | date = 1965 |issn = 0065-6925 | volume = #15 | issue = 39 | access-date = 23 May 2025 }}
A small expedition to the Hindu Kush in 1968, with his wife, Trevor Braham, and Hugh Thomlinson, led to the first ascent of a {{convert|5681|m|ft|abbr=on}} peak near Wakhikah Rah in NE Chitral.{{cite journal | last = Westmacott| first = Michael | title=A Visit to the Ushnu Gol NE Chitral 1968| url = https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/29/13/a-visit-to-the-ushnu-gol-ne-chitral-1968/| access-date = 23 May 2025 | journal = Himalayan Journal | date = 1969 }}
He became president of the Alpine Club (1993–1995){{Cite book |last=Griffin |first=Lindsay |title=Alpine Club Handbook 2015 |publisher=Alpine Club |year=2015 |pages=12 |language=English}} and was instrumental in establishing the Alpine Club's Himalayan Index. He was also elected president of the Climbers Club (1978-1980).
References
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External links
- {{cite news|title=Mike Westmacott|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/sport-obituaries/9352798/Mike-Westmacott.html|work=The Telegraph|accessdate=25 June 2012|date=24 June 2012|location=London}}
- {{cite news|title=Everest expedition climber Westmacott dies, aged 87|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-18549767|work=BBC News|accessdate=25 June 2012|date=22 June 2012}}
- {{cite news|title=On this day : 1953: Everest stories - Mike Westmacott|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/may/29/newsid_2943000/2943002.stm|publisher=BBC|accessdate=25 June 2012|date=29 May 1953}}
- [http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/Units/101.html Royal Geographical Society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061231222712/http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/Units/101.html |date=31 December 2006 }}
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Category:English mountain climbers
Category:Presidents of the Alpine Club (UK)
Category:People educated at Radley College
Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Category:British Indian Army officers
Category:Indian Army personnel of World War II
Category:Sportspeople from Torquay