{"id":12580,"date":"2020-11-23T14:55:55","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T09:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=12580"},"modified":"2020-11-23T14:56:57","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T09:11:57","slug":"a-postcard-from-jan-morris-1926-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/a-postcard-from-jan-morris-1926-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"A postcard from Jan Morris 1926-2020, Remembering the last surviving foreign member of the first expedition to climb Mt Everest in 1953"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer, reporter, historian, traveller, and trans pioneer, Jan Morris died on 20 Nov 2020.<\/p>\n

Lisa Choegyal (Pahichan) November 23 –\u00a0T<\/span>he last surviving foreign member of the first victorious Everest expedition died at the ripe age of 94 just prior to midday on 20 November 2020 at her home in North Wales.<\/p>\n

Jan Morris was unrecognisable from the heavily bearded, Oxford educated, ex-army journalist who strode across Advanced Base Camp for a congratulatory handshake in a typically British fashion with the triumphant Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa. Now, only\u00a0Kancha Sherpa<\/a>\u00a0from Namche is still with us from the historic 1953 British team.<\/p>\n

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With an exclusive commission from\u00a0The Times<\/em>\u00a0of London, James Morris was embedded as a member of the John Hunt-led expedition, but never ventured far up the mountain on his arduous assignment.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was no climber, was not particularly interested in mountaineering. I was there merely as a reporter.\u2019 Terrified that someone might leak the glorious news of the first ascent, his Base Camp message was concealed in a pre-arranged code carried by Sherpa runners then telegraphed from the British Embassy in Kathmandu: \u2018Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned yesterday stop awaiting improvement.\u2019<\/p>\n

Back in\u00a0The Times\u2019<\/em>\u00a0newsroom, they knew what he meant and the glad tidings ricocheted around the globe on the auspicious morning of Queen Elizabeth\u2019s coronation. The world\u2019s highest mountain had been conquered, Sir Ed was knighted and Tenzing Norgay put Nepal firmly on the map.\u00a0For the first time the Sherpa name resonated worldwide, just as the hidden kingdom of Nepal was unlocking its secrets and beginning to allow foreign visitors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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James Morris, on commission for the Times of London, congratulating Edmund Hillary as he arrives back at Advanced Base Camp from the summit of Everest 1953. Photo: Alf Gregory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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At the time of his Sagarmatha scoop, James Morris was already happily married to Elizabeth Tuckniss, daughter of a tea planter who both confirmed mutual love at first sight. Their 70-year love story would produce five children, including their son the poet musician Twm Morys, and the partnership survived the death of an infant and James\u2019 transition into a woman.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth said: \u2018I never stopped loving James or Jan. It did not make any difference to me. We still had our family. We just carried on.\u2019 Forced to divorce, they remained together in a \u2018civil union\u2019.<\/p>\n

Author of over fifty books including British histories, an empire trilogy, travelogues and personal reminiscences, the irrepressible and articulate Jan Morris transitioned from James during the unsympathetic 1970s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Royal Geographical Society photo of James Morris at the time he accompanied the successful British Everest Expedition of 1953.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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An ostensibly highly successful man\u2019s man, he had in fact\u00a0felt all his conscious life that at heart he was female.\u00a0Her ground-breaking memoir\u00a0Conundrum,\u00a0<\/em>written 46 years ago about risky and experimental\u00a0surgery,\u00a0is an elegant classic of the gender genre and still in print, a slender volume that poetically and comprehensively addresses today\u2019s transsexuality debate.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her transition, Jan said: \u2018I would never use the word change, as in \u201csex change\u201d for what happened to me. I did not change sex, I really absorbed one into the other.\u00a0I\u2019m a bit of each now. I freely admit it.\u2019<\/p>\n

I was delighted to be introduced by London publishing connections to this highly accomplished, cerebral and exciting writer during our 1973 research on Marco Polo \u2014 I had wangled my way as the only female member of a\u00a0British film team driving overland from Venice to Central Asia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0daring reporter and tireless traveller who had crossed deserts and scaled mountains,\u00a0her gender transition the previous year was not our focus.\u00a0We consulted Jan Morris about our route and particularly the intricate details of ancient Venice, one of her most popular books and home to Marco Polo, the peripatetic 13th<\/sup>\u00a0century trader whose\u00a0Travels<\/em>\u00a0about journeys to China had first revealed the orient to avid European readers. I remember Jan as strong, straightforward, enthusiastic and helpful, lots of hair and heavy jewellery.<\/p>\n

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Baring her soul,\u00a0Conundrum<\/em>\u00a0was published the following year in 1974. In response to my no doubt na\u00efve gushing fan letter about the book\u2019s profound effect, admiration of her bravery and reminder of our Marco Polo meeting, Jan\u2019s hand-written postcard to me arrived dated 30 October 1974 from their home in Bath.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jan Morris\u2019 postcard dated 30 Oct 1974 in response to my fan letter profoundly praising Conundrum, her beautiful book about transsexuality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Recently I retrieved her card during a Covid clear out, a precious reminder of a long-gone encounter, although the casual multiplicity of our respective travels struck me as completely extraordinary in these static times. Despite the sentiments in her card, Jan and I did not meet up on her return from \u2018S Africa and Australia in the New Year\u2019. I had already returned to Nepal, and stayed.<\/p>\n

The next and last time that I would meet Jan Morris was at\u00a0Sir Edmund Hillary\u2019s funeral<\/a>\u00a0in 2008. In the well-kept hallowed grounds of Auckland\u2019s Government House, the great and the good of New Zealand and world mountaineering were gathered to mourn the national hero\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

Under the spreading trees of the gently sloping garden, the sun shone weakly on the Governor General\u2019s reception that followed a rare state funeral in the cathedral, led by\u00a0Prime Minister Helen Clark<\/a>. Jan attended as a government guest along with the bare handful of surviving 1953 members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At the 2008 funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary in Auckland, Jan Morris chats with Lydia Bradey, New Zealand\u2019s most successful female mountaineer. Photo: Colin Monteath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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I was there with\u00a0Elizabeth Hawley<\/a>\u00a0and the five officiating Sherpa leaders, although by the time we arrived from the crematorium the shadows were lengthening and the crowd was thinning. The day before we had been sitting with the family around Lady June\u2019s Remuera kitchen table when Jan arrived down the carpeted staircase directly from her London flight, a booming presence bearing flowers, slightly awkward and wonderfully untidy with wild white hair and another chunky necklace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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