Sir Edmund Hillary dies, aged 88

Mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, the laid-back beekeeper from New Zealand who with Sherpa Tenzing became the first to conquer Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88. Hillary, who preferred to be known as just "Ed" and said of his conquest "we knocked the bastard off", went on to become one of the 20th century's greatest explorers. He had not been well since last April, when he suffered a fall during a climb in Nepal.

It was on May 29, 1953 - the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation - that Hillary and Tenzing made history by becoming the first people to reach the peak of the world's highest mountain. The question of who actually reached the peak first - Hillary or Tenzing – exercised the public for years. Both men insisted that they had got there at exactly the same time but Tenzing revealed years later that Hillary had been a few steps ahead. The Kiwi mountaineer only admitted being the first to reach Everest's peak after Tenzing’s death in 1986.

Hillary led numerous other explorations over the next two decades, including journeys to the South Pole, six Himalayan ascents and a search for the fabled Yeti and the source of the Yangtze river. Hillary, who was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003, spent much of his life supporting humanitarian work among the Sherpas and the people of Nepalese mountain villages through his Himalayan Trust. In 1975 the mountaineer's wife and a daughter were killed a plane crash. He married again in 1989.

Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, paid tribute, saying: "Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities. In reality he was a colossus. He was a heroic figure who not only ‘knocked off’ Everest but lived a life of determination, humility and generosity."