Edward Felix Norton

Edward Felix Norton (1884 to 1954) was a British Army officer and mountaineer who reached high elevations on the 1922 and 1924 British Everest expeditions. In 1924 he climbed without oxygen by the Great Couloir route to 8,572.8 metres, a world altitude record that stood for nearly 30 years until the Swiss expedition of 1952. When General Charles Granville Bruce fell ill that year Norton took over leadership of the expedition and was praised for his handling of the aftermath of the disappearance of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. He had been introduced to climbing at the Alpine home of his grandfather Alfred Wills, president of the Alpine Club, and served as a lieutenant-general, acting governor of Hong Kong from 1940 to 1941, and adviser to John Hunt before the 1953 Everest ascent.