Edmund Barton

Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC (18 January 1849 – 7 January 1920) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as the first Prime Minister of Australia and became a founding justice of the High Court of Australia.

Barton first became an MP in 1879, in the Parliament of New South Wales. He contributed solidly to the federation movement through the 1890s, eventually contesting the inaugural 1901 federal election as head of a caretaker Protectionist Party federal government. No party won a majority; however, the government was supported by the Australian Labor Party, against the opposition Free Trade Party.

Barton resigned as Prime Minister in 1903 to become a judge of the High Court of Australia, serving until his death in 1920.

Early life

Edmund Barton was born in Glebe, New South Wales, the ninth child of English parents William Barton, a stockbroker, and Mary Louise Barton (née Whydah). He was educated at Fort Street High School and Sydney Grammar School, where he was twice dux and School Captain and met his lifelong friend and later fellow Justice of the High Court of Australia, Richard O'Connor. He graduated with first-class honours and the University Medal in classics from the University of Sydney, where he also demonstrated considerable skill as a cricketer in batting, but not in fielding. He was also an active founding member of the Sydney Rowing Club. Barton became a barrister in 1871. On a cricketing trip to Newcastle in 1870 he met Jane (Jeanie) Mason Ross, whom he married in 1877.

Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. Hillary was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Hillary became interested in mountaineering while in secondary school, making his first major climb in 1939, reaching the summit of Mount Ollivier. He served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as a navigator during World War II. Prior to the 1953 Everest expedition, Hillary had been part of the British reconnaissance expedition to the mountain in 1951, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to climb Cho Oyu in 1952. As part of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition he reached the South Pole overland in 1958. He subsequently reached the North Pole, making him the first person to reach both poles and summit Everest.