Charles Evans (mountaineer)

Sir Robert Charles Evans was a British mountaineer, surgeon and educator, born in Liverpool on 19 October 1918, raised in Wales and a fluent Welsh speaker. He was deputy leader of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, and with Tom Bourdillon made the first assault, reaching the South Summit and turning back about three hundred feet below the main summit on 26 May 1953 because of tiredness and a failing oxygen apparatus. He then led the successful 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition, which made the first ascent of the world's third highest peak, and received the Royal Geographical Society's Patron's Medal in 1956. He served as Principal of the University College of North Wales from 1958 to 1984 and as President of the Alpine Club from 1967 to 1970.