After being observed repairing his own boots — something a gentleman would never do — deputy leader Colonel Edward Strutt was heard to remark, “I always knew the fellow was a shit”.
The shit was George Finch, father of the actor Peter Finch. He and Edmund Mallory were the best climbers in the world, but they were worlds apart. The godlike Mallory was given to strolling about in the nude, when he wasn’t wearing the usual British explorer uniform of jumpers, scarves and pyjamas topped with a suit of Norfolk tweed. The Australian Finch came up with the idea of the “eiderdown jacket”, a bright green creation made of hot air balloon material. You know it as the puffer jacket. The London Alpine Club, which organised the 1922 Everest expedition, thought it was the funniest thing they’d ever seen. They weren’t amused, though, by his oxygen system, which they considered unsportsmanlike.
Mallory made the first attempt on the summit, in his tweed suit and without the assistance of oxygen, but failed. Days later Finch was allowed to climb using his down jacket and oxygen system. He reached 8,360 metres — the highest any person had climbed — before his exhausted partner forced his retreat.
Finch wasn’t invited on the London Alpine Club Everest trip in 1924. Mallory and his young companion Sandy Irvine (using oxygen but wearing tweed) died within metres of the summit. Might things have been different if the more experienced Finch had been his partner?
Finch himself gave up climbing nine years later after friends were killed in a climbing accident. He went on to a distinguished career as a chemist. Along the way he won an MBE for his bombmaking skills during WWI.
You can read all about this fascinating man here:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-25/puffer-jackets-the-incredible-true-story/10133112
or listen to an interview with Robert Wainwright, author of Maverick Mountaineer here:
Gert Loveday's Fun with Books 
Seems like some important life lessons to be drawn here. But am not entirely sure what they are. Maybe avoid Everest? Or tweeds? Or just make bombs.
You never know when this information might come in handy, Josie.
And feel free to repair your own boots.
Sounds very much like the Scott expedition to the South Pole, or perhaps the Franklin Expedition to find the NW Passage. The theme seems to be noble Englishmen trying to uphold all of their civilized ideals, and being beaten by practical people who are more interested in surviving their adventures.
Every Alaskan thanks him for his invention — and thank you, Gert, for sharing George Finch with us so we know who to credit.
That’s it exactly. You have to maintain standards and play a straight bat. None of this cheating with eiderdowns and oxygen.
I’m sticking with the eiderdown and oxygen. And avoiding Everest too —
All this “who ha” and for what?
BTW apparently, we have managed to bring covid-19 to Everest. It’s front page news in our national newspaper. Why can’t people just stay home until the dust settles?
Leslie
Another of those curious byways of history brought to us by the ever-vigilant Gert, thank you. Father of Peter Finch, eh? Who’d’ve thunk it. Also, another example of near-success breeding near-success.