BRISTOL: Personal testimonies of four Mount Everest pioneers have been discovered in the archives of the only museum dedicated to the rise and fall of the British empire.

The tape recordings include an interview with the late Lord John Hunt, leader of the expedition that put Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay on top of the world’s highest peak 50 years ago this week.

Hunt speaks not only of his Everest experiences, but also of his life as an Indian army officer in the 1930s, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol, in the west of England, said in a statement.

“We only found the tapes because one of our curators is a climber and he recognised the name. It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” said museum spokesman Feisal Khalif.

Others voices found in the museum’s archives include those of John Noel, who made a secret expedition into Tibet in 1920-21, and Charles Warren, leader of a 1938 attempt on Mount Everest.

“In terms of the quality of the information and stories and recollections that appear on the tapes, these recordings are unique and a significant find,” Khalif said.

Opened last October, the privately-funded Empire Museum recounts the history of Britain’s huge empire and the impact it left after its eventual demise in the wake of World War II.—AFP