Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine by Julie Summers Page B

Milling and Sandy Irvine as two of the strongest for the sledging party.
    The remaining members of the expedition were A. T. Wilder and Basil Clutterbuck from Merton and from other Oxford colleges Elton, T. C. Gundry, and E. Relf.  Geoffrey Summers, Dick’s elder brother, who had been granted leave from the steel works to accompany the expedition, was to be in charge of the cine filming.  There was still one space to be filled.  Sandy immediately suggested that Binney recruit his friend, Ian Bruce, who was studying at Cambridge, but who was equally strong and athletic and had a taste for adventure.  Binney agreed and asked Sandy to approach him.  Bruce was delighted to be asked but somewhat anxious about the arrangements.  His mother had had endless questions for him when he put the proposition to her and in a letter to Sandy he asked for reassurance on several points: ‘Re our Poling expedition!  I wrote to my mater as soon as I got your letter and the first thing she said to me was “Is there going to be a doctor with you?” just like her to ask.  By the way, if we do go to the North Pole I hope I’m not the only Tab [Cambridge man].’ Sandy reassured Bruce in his anxieties and was eventually able to send him the good news that they would be accompanied on the expedition by Tom Longstaff, who had returned the previous autumn from the 1922 Everest expedition.  This evidently calmed Mrs Bruce who gave her permission for her son to go. Bruce concludes his letter to Sandy ‘I’m coming up for the Boat Race, so I may see you then.  I suppose you’re hard at it now, I wish you personally beaucoup de luck, but may your split-arse boat sink during the race.’
    On the Wednesday before the race Odell met Milling and Sandy at the Norman Hotel, Putney where the Oxford crew was having a champagne dinner.  Binney had suggested the two of them as likely candidates for his sledging party and Odell came to Putney with the express purpose of checking them out.  He knew that they were splendidly fit but he wanted to assure himself of their suitability for inclusion in what would be surely the toughest aspect of the trip.   He sat between the two of them and had a very amusing evening by all accounts.  Both men were enthused about the Spitsbergen expedition and delighted at the prospect of being included in the sledging party.  Odell later recalled this first meeting when he asked them to join and referred particularly to Sandy’s alacrity: ‘He seemed at once to typify all that I was looking for and all that is so essential in the make-up of one that is to be not merely a useful, but also a genial, companion under the trying conditions of the Arctic.  Adventurer by nature that he was, he jumped at the idea though I must admit I abundantly emphasized the labour and hardships of sledging, and spoke little of the delights of skiing over virgin glaciers, and exploring unknown peaks.’  Odell also suggested that Sandy might join him for a climbing weekend in North Wales over Easter.  Geoffrey Summers, who was to be in the climbing party, had already mentioned this possibility to Sandy who had again responded with his usual eagerness and Odell left Putney that evening with five tickets for the Boat Race and two recruits to his sledging party. 
    The Boat Race was held on Saturday 24 March 1923.  The Times rowing correspondent assessed the two crews and came down slightly in favour of the Oxford boat believing them to be the better crew by a small margin.  He was much taken by the new design of their boat, which was held to be an excellent craft, sixty feet long, 24¾ inches at its widest point, and 9 5/8 inches at the greatest depth. 
    It was a perfect spring day on the Saturday; a relief after the weeks of cold and rain, and the spectators turned out in their tens of thousands along the banks of the Thames.  The Irvine and Summers family had teamed up for the race and were standing on the roof of Willie’s