The death of Sir Geoffrey Corbett, besides depriving the British Government of a valued official who has served his country with distinct tion in India and Egypt, will have been noted with regret by all mountaineers. In his younger days Geoffrey Corbett managed when on leave from India, to put in some notable climbing in the Alps and he was one of the best-known authorities on mountaineering in England. Successive Everest Expeditions took advantage of his dual experience—climbing in Europe and long service in India—to consult him and secure his sympathies. When the Himalayan Club was founded in 1928, as the result largely Of his efforts and based on ambitions which had first been stirred so long ago as 1884 by Douglas Freshfield, he was of course a founder member but his unconquerable modesty—apart from the pressure of his then exceedingly exacting official duties—made him refuse any Office in the new organization. In the United Service Club at Simla, however, he was always at hand to discuss mountaineering, and do whatever he could to assist the various expeditions which resulted from the Club's successful foundation. His untimely death must come as a shock to many, for he was only 58 years old and although, as the result of enforced abandonment of active participation in climbing, he had acquired a portliness which so often marks the middle-age of the athlete, he always seemed to be in robust health. An Old Bromsgrovian, he took classical honours at Hertford College Oxford and spent his early days in the Indian Civil Service in the Central Provinces—the paradise of the sportsman. Rising high in the Indian Government as an expert on commercial and maritime affairs, he represented India at several important international conferences. On retirement in 1932 he was appointed Chairman of the Food Council in Great Britain and relinquished that post in 1935 to be Adviser to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry at Cairo. He was also Reader in Indian History at Oxford University,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.