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The
Mount Everest Expedition Commemorative
Postcard and Stamp 1924
The
1922 Mount Everest Expedition mounted by the Mount
Everest Committee had been immensely successful, and
Sir Francis Younghusband, the President of the Royal
Geographical Society, was keen to capitalise on the
valuable lessons which had been learned in 1922;
initially, there was hope that another expedition
could leave in 1923, but it soon became obvious that
there were too many hurdles to overcome, and that the
earliest feasible date would be 1924.
Plans
went ahead, but there was a constant financial
problem; Captain John Noel, who had accompanied the
1922 expedition as the Official Photographer, and had
been invited to act in the same role in 1924,
presented a scheme which, at a stroke, would relieve
the Committee of a major financial burden - he
proposed buying all the photographic rights, both for
film and stills, and lecture rights, in return for the
vast sum of £8,000.The idea was accepted readily, and Noel agreed
to pay the entire sum before the expedition departed.
Not
himself a wealthy man, he set up a company
Explorers Films and invited friends to contribute
to the scheme, in the expectation that, when the film
and lecture tours were undertaken in the Autumn 1924,
the company members would soon recoup their initial
financial outlay.
The
greatest obstacle was to sustain interest in the
expedition; long before the age of television, it
would be vital to keep the public attention focused on
the expeditions progress, so that, when the film
was shown many months later, the response would make
the entire undertaking worthwhile. His aim was to
publicise the expedition by means of a postcard, sent
from the mountain, which would encourage mainly
youngsters to persuade their parents to take them to a
film or lecture show, with the memorable postcard as a
souvenir.
Noel
designed the postcard, using one of his images of Base
Camp, and the commemorative stamp.He put an advert in one of the daily papers,
and engaged 2 secretaries to deal with what he hoped
would be a positive response.By 10 am, the deluge of mail overwhelmed the 2
girls, who fled in panic!So Noel had to quickly engage an Agency to
handle the sack loads of mail which were sent in;each address was transferred to an Everest
postcard, which was then packed for transportation to
Base Camp.
By
virtue of his enormous contribution to the expedition,
and the fact that he was the official photographer,
Noel was entitled to certain privileges, one being the
opportunity to take an immense amount of baggage;the leader, General Bruce, often complained at
the amount which Noel was taking Noel legitimately
attributed these sacks to essential photographic
equipment!!At
Base Camp, an Indian stamp was added and the thousands
of cards were dispatched.Thus the explanation for the different
handwriting of the address, and the disparity in
dispatch dates and provenance.
The
exercise proved very successful;whilst lecturing in the United Kingdom, and
even in continental Europe, Noel was approached by
enthusiastic youngsters, delighted at owning such a
special souvenir of a great climb, although it had
also been such a tragic attempt on the mountain.
Today, it is a great privilege for me, when I hear of
people who received a card themselves, or have
inherited one, and who are interested in the story.
However,
at the time, the exercise was frowned upon by the
Mount Everest Committee, despite the enormous amount
of publicity it generated, at a time when such - free-
advertising was relatively unknown.In reply to an enquiry in 1927, the Secretary
wrote: ...I have to say that the Mount Everest
Committee know nothing officially of any so-called
Mount Everest stamps, though they have heard from time
to time some reference to something of the kind which
was apparently a private enterprise on the part of the
gentleman who had the photographic rights in the
Expedition of 1924.How attitudes to such sponsorship have since
changed!!
Noel
was indeed a man of great vision and enterprise;but .little could he ever have imagined that,
only 12 years after his death at the age of 99 in
1989 -the
world would again become absorbed in the mystery of
Mallory and Irvine, and demand for his beautifully
hand-painted glass plates would be immense, as
speculation continues regarding the possibility that
those 2 great climbers might have been the first to
conquer Mount Everest.
