A daring expedition over Everest
Posted on by Fay Curtis.
By Eve Andreski, BECC Documentation Assistant
A new accession to the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection (BECC) recalls a ground-breaking feat!
90 years ago today, on 3 April 1933, the first flight expedition over Everest prepared to embark. Two Westland biplanes were to take off from Lalbalu Airfield in Bihar, India, and soar above the highest mountain in the world. Mount Everest is part of the Himalayan range, on the China-Nepal border, and it stands over 29,000 feet tall.
The first plane was piloted by Air Commodore Sir Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, who was at the time the youngest squad leader in the Royal Air Force. The second was piloted by Lieutenant David MacIntyre, of the same squadron. The pilots sat in cockpits open to the air! Also in the plane were observers in enclosed cockpits, whose job was to document the mission. The effort was to be recorded by a team of skilled photographers and videographers.
This is where our story starts! The ground photographer, Victor Hubert Veevers, wrote a letter to his wife Nora in anticipation of the flight. Originally sent via airmail from Bihar to London, it has since made its way into the BECC collection. This letter (BECC reference: 2018/007/4/1) is transcribed below:
“My dearest Nor,
This is a special letter to you on the eve of the great flight over Mount Everest. The weather reports appear favourable and only 100 letters will be posted as the planes pass over the highest mountain in the world.
The occasion calls for great fortitude of the chief pilot the Marquis of Clydesdale (Douglas-Hamilton) and Black[er?] chief observer. The second plane will carry F. L . MacIntyre and Mr Bonnet of the Gaumont British Corporation.
It will be a unique occasion and we all wish the flying party Godspeed and the greatest success.
I hope the children in years to come will remember this day, the 2nd April 1933. It is Wallers birthday. I hope you are keeping well and the family are all in the best of health.
I must close these few lines.
With my fondest love & kisses,From your loving,
Vic.”
The mission was successful, as confirmed by Veevers in a second letter to his family (BECC reference: 2018/007/4/2) sent on 7 April. Veevers’ first letter was correct – the expedition is still talked about today! In fact, photographs from the expedition helped Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summit the peak 20 years later.
