Michael Ward

Michael Phelps Ward, CBE was an English mountaineer and surgeon. Amongst his other accomplishments, he was the expedition doctor during the history-making first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 led by John Hunt, when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. He argued the conquest of the mountain was as much a victory for science since the scientists finally figured out how to cope with the physiological effects of extreme high altitude such as oxygen lack, dehydration, and cold injury. His discoveries a few years earlier in the Royal Geographical Society archives of the Milne-Hinks map and unofficial RAF photos of the Everest area helped find a viable route the summit thus making the ascent possible.