have reached the summit. Achievements In 1936 Noel Odell with Bill Tilman successfully reached the summit of Nanda Devi which at the time, and until 1950, was the highest mountain climbed. Odell returned to Everest with the expedition led by Tilman in 1938. Noel Odell had a colourful career outside mountaineering as well, serving with the Royal Engineers in both World Wars, as a consultant in the petroleum and mining industries, and teaching geology at a number of universities around the world, including Harvard and Cambridge. He was Professor of Geology at the University of Otago in New Zealand and Peshawar University in Pakistan. In 1944 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Sir James Wordie, George Tyrrell, Sir Arthur Trueman and John Weir. Family In 1917 he married Gwladys Jones (died 1977). Publications The Geology of the Eastern Parts of Central Spitzbergen (1927) Geological and some other Observations in the Mount Everest Region (1938) The Petrography of the Franz Josef Fjord Region (1955) Legacy In the 2010 documentary film about Mallory's expedition, The Wildest Dream, Alan Rickman acts as the voice of Noel Odell. Footnotes Sources George Band, ‘Odell, Noel Ewart (1890–1987)’, rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 1890 births 1987 deaths People from the Isle of Wight 20th-century British geologists British rock climbers English mountain climbers Harvard University staff University of Otago faculty