Dangerous Brothers - the mountain-top deaths of the Mallorys - RAF Watnall's boss and his Everest pioneer brother
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| The wreckage of Leigh-Mallory's Avro York aircraft still litters the high Alps today. He and his wife are buried, alongside eight aircrew, in Le Rivier d'Allemont, near Grenoble, a short distance below the site of the air crash. |
RAF Watnall's boss during the early years of WW2 was Air Vice Marshall (AVM) Trafford Leigh-Mallory, younger brother of famous Everest mountaineer George Mallory. The brothers' shared love of the adventurous lifestyle and pushing the limits perhaps too far resulted in them both meeting their deaths on high snow-covered mountains.
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| Trafford Leigh-Mallory "L-M" to his friends |
The "Dangerous Brothers" and their cycle trips to Snowdonia - In their years growing up in Cheshire they'd cycle to the mountains of Snowdonia in Wales for mountaineering trips. George also used wintry Snowdonia to prepare for his Everest expeditions.
The brothers' sense of daring and fearlessness dates back to their early childhood when 7-year-old George would climb the drainpipes of his father's rectory closely followed by little Trafford. George knew how to get down but Trafford had to be rescued by ladder! George's sister Avie recalls... "He climbed everything that it was at all possible to climb". On another occasion George, who was blessed with an astonishing gift of balance, once climbed alone onto the roof of Mobberley church and walked round the top of the parapet of the tower to the terror of those watching below.
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| August 1908 - the determined duo, 16-year-old Trafford and 22-year-old George, setting off for a climbing trip to Snowdonia from their home in Birkenhead |
Trafford's time as Commanding Officer at RAF Watnall
From 1937 to 1940 Trafford Leigh-Mallory (known as "L-M" ) was Commanding Officer of RAF Fighter Command's 12 Group firstly at RAF Hucknall, moving to RAF Watnall just prior to the Battle of Britain. He and wife Doris lived at Woodborough Hall. Doris helped the war effort by organising the evacuees from Sheffield in the village.
Trafford would have been frequently seen down in Watnall's underground Operations Room bunker. His biography tells how he liked to be present and very hands on with his control of his group's aircraft movements during the Battle of Britain... "During the battles, L-M sat 'in the chair' in his Group's Operations Room and conducted the battle himself. Having carried out the most pre-war practices, Cross [Kenneth Cross L-M's Liaison Officer and one of his closest staff] considers that L-M had become the best Group commander. By contrast Park at 11 Group walked up and down his Operations Room, giving advice to other people who were sitting in the chairs and having to take the responsibility."
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| Mary Harrison worked with Trafford Leigh-Mallory in Watnall's secret underground bunker during WW2 |
Watnall-based WAAF Mary Harrison recalls seeing him down there which can only have occurred before December 1940 when he moved to 11 Group...
"We saw many interesting people down in the Ops Room. Douglas Bader, Max Aitken, Leigh Mallory. The late Duke of Kent and the late Princess Royal and many more."
This has been an enduring mystery since Mallory and climbing partner Sandy Irvine went missing in 1924. The last sighting of them was by fellow team member Noel Odell high on the summit ridge climbing to the top of a prominent rocky step "going strong for the top." But there are two rocky steps on that section leading to much speculation in mountaineering circles...
"This final view, the last sighting of Mallory & Irvine alive, has forever been a source of great debate: Did Odell see them reach the top of the First Step, or the Second Step? If the former, at 12:50 PM, it is doubtful at best that they reached the top, for it would have been already too late in the day. But, if they were atop the Second Step at that time, it is almost unthinkable that they did NOT reach the summit: with all major challenges behind them, it would be smooth sailing from there to the top of the world."
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| 1921 British Everest Expedition - a motley crew indeed! George Mallory is on the right of the back row. |
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| George (back row, 2nd left) returned to Everest in 1922 and here in 1924 for his final fatal climb. |
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| June 6th 1924 - The last picture of George and climbing partner Sandy Irvine. Location: Camp IV at approximately 7,020 meters (23,030 feet) on the North Col of Mount Everest, Tibet
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April 1924 - Trafford's final letter to George
After WW1, Trafford thought of re-entering his previous job in the legal profession, but with little prospect of a law career, he stayed in the recently created Royal Air Force (RAF), with promotion to major on 1 August 1919 (the rank was renamed "squadron leader" on the same date) and command of the Armistice Squadron.
- In early 1924 a few months before setting off for his third climb of Mount Everest, George wrote to his sister Mary, mentioning Trafford...
'T looks forward without a doubt to success and promotion in the future, and is quite sure he is at the heart of Imperial Defence at present; I dare say he does his job very well.'
- George sailed with the expedition by boat to India. He posted a card to Trafford from Port Said on 17 March. It said...
'How are you getting on? Hope you have got rid of the flu and flourish - send me a line sometime to Ev. Ex. c/o British Trade Aset Jatung Tibet. Greetings to Doris. G.M.'
- In April 1924 Trafford replies with what will be his last letter to George...
65 Longridge Rod
London SW5
April 2nd 1924
My dear George
Many thanks for your p.c. Both children had flu about a week after I had it, & then I got a second dose. However we are all splendid now.
As you will see from the address, we have moved. The children were beginning to get a bit out of hand & we always seemed to be catching one disease or another. We are awfully comfortable now in very nice rooms. We have got two double bedrooms, a single bedroom for Tom, & a sitting room. Tom's bedroom is ordinarily a sitting room, so nurse can have the children down here when we don't want them. I like it ever so much better than the Hotel, because I now have somewhere quiet to read & write.
I suppose you see a few papers, & know what a series of strikes we are having just now. It would appear that the Trades Unions regard it as a good moment for getting the best possible terms. The most serious thing I think is the development of strikes organised by Communists against the advice of the unions. I hope they will get the firm handling they deserve. I went to a most interesting meeting at the B.I.I.A. last night on 'The Balkans'. I find that one gets a lot of most useful information there, which is good from an educational point of view. Mother stayed a night here on her way to Aix-les-Bains.
I am not quite sure whether she is particularly pleased with it now she has got there. I am going up to Birkenhead to stay with the old man over Easter & hope to see Avie & her family at the same time.
I imagine you have now started your trek. I have seen one article in the Times so far, but that just dealt with the administrative arrangements & the composition of the party.
A Trafford cousin has suddenly turned up. He is normally a cantonment magistrate in India & home on leave. He is an odd piece of work & seems to have a passion for getting to know relations. We had him to supper one night & he took us to Diplomacy last Saturday. The revival of Diplomacy is excellent. I never thought anything of Gladys Cooper as an actress, but I must say she seems to have improved tremendously lately. The children are bursting with life & ?? very happy.
Good luck to you
Yr affec brother (which means "Your affectionate brother")
Trafford
The next news which Trafford heard about George was of his presumed death at or near the top of Mount Everest. The news came in a telegram to his father from the Alpine Club on 20 June 1924
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| George's remarkably well-preserved body was found in 1999, 75 years after his death. Trafford's body was discovered several months after his death in June 1945 once the Alpine snows had cleared. |
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Notes and Sources
T L-M (11 July 1892 - 14 Nov 1944 aged 52) biography "Big Wing"
https://archive.org/details/bigwingbiography0000newt/page/61/mode/1up?q=hucknall
https://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Leigh-Mallory.htm
George Mallory (18 June 1886 - 8/9 June 1924 aged 37) biography "The Wildest Dream"
https://archive.org/details/wildestdream00pete/mode/2up
"Fallen: George Mallory: The Man, The Myth and the 1924 Everest Tragedy" by Mick Conefrey
https://www.woodborough-heritage.org.uk/woodboroughinwwii.html
RAF Operation Records Books for 12 Group 1940
https://www.rafweb.org
George's last letter was sent to wife Ruth. It shows a near miss with a crevasse and highlights the deadly nature of their "trek"...
Camp I.
May 27 1924
My dearest Ruth,
This is going to be the scrappiest letter - a time limit for the mail has suddenly been put on and this morning when I might have been writing to you I was busy doing a communique at Norton’s request, I find it an impossible task to write that sort of thing up here. Anyway such as it is you will have read it, so that is some satisfaction.
Dear Girl, this has been a bad time altogether. I look back on tremendous efforts & exhaustion & dismal looking out of a tent door and onto a world of snow & vanishing hopes - & yet, & yet, & yet there have been a good many things to set on the other side. The party has played up wonderfully. The first visit to the North Col was a triumph for the old gang. Norton & I did the job & the cutting of course was all my part - so far as one can enjoy climbing above Camp II I enjoyed the conquest of the ice wall & crack the crux of the route, & making the steps too in the steep final 200 ft.
Odell did very useful work leading the way on from the camp to the Col; I was practically bust to the world & couldn’t have lead that half hour though I still had enough mind to direct him. We made a very bad business of the descent. It suddenly occurred to me that we ought to see what the old way down was like. Norton & I were ahead, unroped, & Odell behind in charge of a porter who had carried up a light load. We got onto ground where a practiced man can just get a long without crampons (which we hadn’t with us), chipping occasional steps in very hard snow or ice. I was all right ahead but Norton had a nasty slip & then the porter, whose knot didn’t hold so that he went down some way & was badly shaken. Meanwhile I, below, finding the best way down had walked into an obvious crevasse; by some miscalculation I had thought I had prodded the snow with which it was choked & where I hoped we could walk instead of cutting steps at the side of it - all the result of mere exhaustion no doubt - but the snow gave way & in I went with the snow tumbling all around me, down luckily only about 10 feet before I fetched up half-blind & breathless to find myself most precariously supported only by my ice axe somehow caught across the crevasse & still held in my right hand - & below was a very unpleasant black hole. I had some nasty moments before I got comfortably wedged & began to yell for help up through the round hole I had come through where the blue sky showed – this because I was afraid any operations to extricate myself would bring down a lot more snow & perhaps precipitate me into the bargain. However I soon grew tired of shouting – they hadn’t seen me from above - & bringing the snow down a little at a time I made a hole out towards the side (the crevasse ran down a slope) after some climbing, & so extricated myself - but was then on the wrong side of the crevasse, so that eventually I had to cut across a nasty slope of very hard ice & further down some mixed unpleasant snow before I was out of the wood. The others were down by a better line 10 minutes before me - that cutting against time at the end after such a day just about brought me to my limit.
So much for that day.
My one personal trouble has been a cough. It started a day or two before leaving the B.C. [Base Camp] but I thought nothing of it. In the high camp it has been the devil. Even after the day’s exercise I have described I couldn’t sleep but was distressed with bursts of coughing fit to tear one’s guts - & so headache & misery altogether; besides which of course it has a very bad effect on one’s going on the mountain. Somervell also has a cough which started a little later than mine & he has not been at his physical best.
The following day when the first loads were got to Camp IV in a snowstorm Somervell & Irvine must have made a very fine effort hauling load up the chimney. Hazard had bad luck to be left alone in charge of the porters at [Camp] IV only for one night according to our intentions, but the snow next day prevented Geoff [Bruce] & Odell from starting - & the following day he (i.e. H) elected to bring the party down quite rightly considering the weather; but can you imagine, he pointedly ordered one man, who had been appointed camp cook for the men, to stay up on the chance of his being useful to the party coming up - it is difficult to make out how exactly it happened, but evidently he didn’t shepherd his party property at all & in the end 4 stayed up one of these badly frostbitten. Had the snow been a bit worse that day we went up to bring them down things might have been very bad indeed. Poor old Norton was very hard hit altogether - hating the thought of such a bad muddle, & himself really not fit to start out next day - nor were any of us for that matter & it looked 10 to 1 against our getting up with all that snow about let alone get a party down. I led from the camp to a point some little distance above the flat glacier - the snow wasn’t so very bad as there had been no time for it to get sticky, still that part with some small delays took us 3 hours; then S. [Somervell] took us up to where Geoff [Bruce] & Odell had dumped their loads the day before & shortly afterwards Norton took on the lead; luckily we found the snow better as we proceeded, N [Norton] alone had crampons & was able to take us up to the big crevasse without step cutting.
Here we had half an hour’s halt and at 1.30 I went on again for the steep 200 ft or so to the point where the big crevasse joins the corridor. From here there were two doubtful stretches. N [Norton] led up the first while the two of us made good at the corner of the crevasse - he found the snow quite good. And S. [Somervell] led across the final slope (following Hazard’s just discernible tracks in the wrong place, but of some use now because the snow had bound better there). N. [Norton] & I had an anxious time belaying, & it began to be cold too as the sun had left us. S. [Somervell] made a very good show getting the men off - but I won’t repeat my report. Time was pretty short as it was 4.30 when they began to come back using S’s [Somervell’s] rope as a handrail. Naturally the chimney took some time. It was just dusk when we got back to camp.
N [Norton] has been quite right to bring us down for rest. It is no good sending men up the mountain unfit. The physique of the whole party has gone down sadly. The only chance now is to get fit & go for a simpler quicker plan. The only plum fit man is Geoffrey Bruce. N. [Norton] has made me responsible for choosing the parties of attack himself first choosing me into the first party if I like. But I’m quite doubtful if I shall be fit enough. Irvine will probably be one & 2 of N [Norton], S [Somervell], or self with Geoff the other 2 to make up 4 for the two parties of two each. But again I wonder whether the monsoon will give us a chance. I don’t want to get caught but our three day scheme from the Chang La will give the monsoon a good chance. We shall be going up again the day after tomorrow - Six days to the top from this camp!
Mails have come tumbling in these last days – three in rapid succession - yours dated from Westbrook with much about the car. I fear it has given you a lot of trouble; Clare’s poem with which I’m greatly delighted; a good letter from David [Pye] from P.Y.P. [Pen-y-Pass, Wales] - will you please thank him at once as I shall hardly manage to do so by this mail. Mother writes in great spirits from Aix. It’s a great joy to hear from you especially but also from anyone who will write a good letter.
The candle is burning out & I must stop.
Darling I wish you the best I can - that your anxiety will be at an end before you get this - with the best news. Which will also be the quickest. It is 50 to 1 against us but we’ll have a whack yet & do ourselves proud.
Great love to you. Ever your loving, George.
[written on margin of first page]
P.S. The parts where I boast of my part are put in to please you and not meant for other eyes. G.M.
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