George Ingle Finch (4 August 1888 – 22 November 1970) was an Australian chemist and mountaineer. He was the first person known to climb to a height exceeding . His obituary in The Times describes him as "one of the two best alpinists of his time" (with George Mallory). Education and military service He was born in Orange, New South Wales, Australia to Charles Edward and Laura Isabel (nee Black) Finch, educated in German-speaking Switzerland, and studied physical sciences at the University of Geneva. He began studying medicine in Paris (where he scaled the walls of Notre Dame with his brother) but decided he preferred the physical sciences. During the First World War, he served with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1918 New Year Honours for services in connection with the War in France, Egypt and Salonika. In the Second World War he investigated fire defence. Career A member of the second British expedition under General Charles Granville Bruce to Mount Everest, on 23 May 1922 Finch and Captain Geoffrey Bruce reached an elevation of on the north ridge before retreating. Finch fell out with the Everest Committee after 1922, but his pioneering work on oxygen, which he pursued with messianic zeal, remained crucial to future expeditions. In the Alps, Finch was on the first ascent of the North Face Diagonal or "Finch Route" on the Dent d'Hérens, which he climbed with T. G. B. Forster and R. Peto on 2 August 1923. Finch was also a keen skier and was a founding member of the Alpine Ski Club in 1908. He was a lifelong advocate and supporter of the Alpine Club and would later become its president. Between 1936 and 1952, Finch held the position of Professor of Applied Physical Chemistry at Imperial College London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1938. His candidacy citation read: Finch was awarded their Hughes Medal in 1944. He was president of the Physical Society from 1947 to 1949. Personal life Finch was first married to Alicia "Betty" Fisher of London. By the time he returned from the front in 1917, Fisher had given birth to a son from a relationship with another man, Wentworth "Jock" Campbell, an Indian Army officer. That boy was the future Oscar-winning film actor Peter Finch. George separated the infant