Francis Younghusband

Everest: the Challenge Francis Younghusband

This early work by Francis Younghusband was originally published in 1936 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'Everest: The Challenge' is about the landscape and people of the Himalayas and the various attempts to scale the world's highest peak. Francis Younghusband was born in 1863 at Munree, British India, the son of Major-General John W. Younghusband and Clara Jane Shaw. Younghusband attended Clifton College, Bristol, before entering the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1881. After his time at the Academy he was commissioned as a Subaltern in the 1st King's Dragoon Guards where he began his military career. He rose through the ranks and in 1902, due to fears of Russian expansion, the now Major Younghusband, was promoted to the position of British Commisioner to Tibet, a post he held until 1904. Younghusband married Helen Augusta Magniac, with whom he had two children, a son who died in infancy and a daughter, Eileen Younghusband. Their daughter went on to become a prominent social worker.