The final words of mountaineer George Mallory to his wife have come to light as letters between them are digitised for the first time. Mallory, vanished on Mount Everest in 1924 at the age of 37 alongside his climbing partner Andrew Irvine. The ambiguity of whether they reached Everest’s summit remains a mystery. Despite debate over the years, Mallory’s body was discovered near the summit in 1999, while Irvine’s remains were never found. Meanwhile, 100 years after the tragedy, the letters between Mallory and his wife Ruth were recently digitised by Cambridge University experts. In his final letter dated May 27, 1924, sent from a camp on Everest, Mallory claimed that their group had a very slight chance of success. Ruth shared she missed him in the sole surviving letter to Mallory, written on March 3, 1924 and apologised for disagreements.
In the letter, George Mallory informed his wife, “It is 50 to 1 against us but we’ll have a whack yet & make ourselves proud. 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. Great love to you. Ever loving, George.”
In Ruth’s letter, she craved his companionship and admitted that she misses him even more than before. She further apologised for showing frustration or unpleasant behaviour towards him caused mainly for feeling neglected, which has often been the common cause of her behaviour. Ruth also apologised for spoiling the moments they shared together.
College archivist Katy Green said, “It has been a real pleasure to work with these letters. Whether it’s George’s wife Ruth writing about how she was posting him plum cakes and a grapefruit to the trenches (he said the grapefruit wasn’t ripe enough), or whether it’s his poignant last letter where he says the chances of scaling Everest are ‘50 to 1 against us’, they offer a fascinating insight into the life of this famous Magdalene alumnus.”
According to Independent, the digitised letters explore George Mallory’s life, including his initial expeditions to Everest in 1921 and 1922, where he felt responsible for the deaths of seven sherpas in an avalanche. The letters also feature Mallory’s experiences during World War I, particularly his service in the Artillery during the Battle of the Somme. The three letters retrieved from Mallory’s body in 1999, were preserved for 75 years in his jacket pocket and are now available online. These include a letter from his brother, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Stella Cobden-Sanderson and a letter from his sister Mary Brooke.
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