Sir Edmund Hillary
Sir Edmund was made a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1995. The banner of his Coat of Arms was placed above his stall in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, England. After his death in January of 2008 the Banner was taken down, and was returned by The Dean of Windsor to the Hillary family following the Service of Thanksgiving in the Chapel attended by the Queen on 2 April. The Banner is the Shield design of Sir Edmund’s Coat of Arms bled out into a square.
Visitors to St Mary’s in Holy Trinity are able to see the Garter Banner of Sir Edmund Hillary. "It is an honour for the family to choose to hang the banner in St Mary’s," says the Cathedral Dean, The Very Rev’d Ross Bay. The gift of the banner provides an ongoing reminder of how family, friends, and all who wanted to acknowledge Sir Edmund’s life came to the Cathedral for his state funeral and lying in state in January 2008. Thousands queued outside the Cathedral till the early hours of the morning on the day of his funeral to file past his casket and honour his achievements.
Photos by Woolf Photography of Wellington