How my father broke the news of Everest triumph

At his South Harting home, David Summerhayes spoke to the Observer about that day more than half a century before, recalling the role played by his father.

Sir Christopher Summerhayes was the man who relayed the coded message to London after Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay conquered the world’s greatest mountain on May 29, 1953.

Son David was standing in Park Lane, on the morning of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II four days later, when the news was relayed to the crowds through loudspeakers.

He knew his father, Britain’s ambassador in Nepal, was heavily involved with the expedition through long letters received in the months leading up to the expedition.

But even he did not know, as he joined the celebrating throngs on the morning of the coronation, the lengths the expedition had gone to to make sure the news reached Londoners before it was circulated across the world.

Writing about his father in a book published in 1998, ten years after Sir Christopher died at the age of 92, David said: "It is fair to pay tribute, as the climbers did themselves, to his enormous practical contribution to the successful ascent of Everest.

"Coping with officialdom, sorting out problems over transport and supplies, giving calm political advice during the aftermath of the climb and above all, handling the expedition’s communications with the outside world. He went a long way beyond the call of duty."

Speaking at his home in 2008, David told the Observer: "The Times had the sole copyright on the expedition because the paper was financing part of it.

"Other newspapers sent correspondents but they didn’t have the access to information in the same way The Times did.

"And the newspaper had an arrangement with my father that if a message was transmitted from the Everest expedition saying it had been successful, my father would send it through to the Foreign Office in London to be relayed to The Times offices."

Times correspondent James Morris had become concerned the news could ‘leak out’ as the message was transmitted from the mountain to Sir Christopher in Kathmandu.

He came up with a code for the crucial success message, which, he told the ambassador, would begin ‘snow conditions bad’.

This would be followed by several phases which could refer to events on the mountain but in fact were prearranged signals for the names of the climbers who had made the summit.

On May 29, at 11.30am, Hillary and Tensing stepped onto the summit.

"They had forgotten to bring a little Union Jack to plant on the summit, " wrote David, "so my father gave them one of the two pennants that flew on the bonnet of his official car."

Tensing tied the flag and three others – United Nations, Indian and Nepalese – to his ice axe and Edmund Hillary took the historic picture which would grace the front covers of countless publications.

The news was passed back down the mountain by various encrypted messages and the coded message dated June 1 was then radioed to the Indian embassy in Kathmandu.

It was forwarded to Sir Christopher, who decoded it using instructions he had held secretly for this occasion.

"His copy of the letter had a cross against the names of Hillary and Tensing," said David. The phrase for Hillary was ‘advance base abandoned’, with ‘awaiting improvement’ for Tensing.

His historic telegram to the foreign office in London read: "Everest climbed 29 May by Hillary and Tensing. All well, Tell Everest Committee and Times."

As the celebrations began in London, Sir Christopher continued to provide support for the expedition team when they arrived back in Kathmandu some two weeks later.

It was he who quelled a political storm over who had reached the summit first.

For those first few days a story circulated in Kathmandu that Tensing had reached the summit first despite his protestations.

"It created quite a problem for my father, especially, because he and Tensing knew the truth and the expedition members knew the truth, " said David.

"In the end, my father suggested that they should say the two reached the top together."

And that is how the news was conveyed. It was not until Hillary wrote of the momentous occasion that the world came to know it was he who had taken the first steps on the summit.

David, who died in November 2008 aged 86, had a collection of treasured memorabilia from the 1953 expedition.

It included the Times report of June 2 which broke the news, other articles which highlighted the achievement, prized photographs of the team and a book presented to his father by the Himalayan Joint Committee of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club, and signed by every climber in the expedition.