Mike Banks (mountaineer)
Major Michael Edward Borg Banks MBE (1922-2013) was a soldier, adventurer, climber and author.[1]
He was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, on 22 December 1922.[1] His father Humphrey Borg, an engineer, and mother Elsie (nee Millicent) worked in Malta, where Banks was schooled until returning to Chippenham when he was 14.[1] He adopted the surname Banks by deed poll, in adulthood.[1]
Banks joined the Royal Marines, with a commission, in January 1942.[1] He was a member of the British North Greenland Expedition (1952 to 1954).
He appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 25 November 1954.[2] He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1959.[1]
In 1958, he made the first ascent of Rakaposhi with Tom Patey as part of a British-Pakistani joint forces Himalayan expedition.[3]
At the age of 77, in May 2000, he climbed the Scottish sea stack, the Old Man of Hoy becoming the oldest person to have done so.[4]
He died on 9 February 2013, aged 90.[1]
Bibliography
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