George Finch (chemist)

George Ingle Finch FRS (4 August 1888 – 22 November 1970) was a chemist and mountaineer. Born in Australia, and educated in German-speaking Switzerland, studying physical sciences at Geneva University. Between 1936 and 1952 he held the position of Professor of Applied Physical Chemistry at Imperial College London.

A member of the second British expedition under General Charles Granville Bruce to Mount Everest, on May 23 1922 Finch and Captain C. Geoffrey Bruce reached an altitude of 27,300 ft on the north ridge before retreating. [http://www.everestnews2004.com/malloryandirvine2004/stories2004/bruce.htm] Finch fell out with the Everest Committee after 1922, but his pioneering work on oxygen, which he pursued with messianic zeal, remained crucial to future expeditions.

In the Alps, Finch was on the first ascent of the North Face Diagonal or 'Finch Route' on the Dent d'Hérens, which he climbed with T. G. B. Forster and R. Peto on August 2 1923.

Finch was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1938 and won its Hughes Medal in 1944. He was a lifelong advocate and supporter of the Alpine Club and would later become its president.

External links

* http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/Units/32.html
* http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-7398(197103)137%3A1%3C136%3AOGIF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q
* http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4606(197211)18%3C222%3AGIF1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P