Last member of Hillary, Tenzing's team to climb Mt. Everest dies at 89

London, Mar 24 : George Lowe, who was the last surviving member of the Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's team that first conquered Everest in 1953 has died in a Derbyshire nursing home.

The 89-year old Lowe died in Ripley on Wednesday after a long-term illness, with his wife Mary by his side, the BBC reports.

Family friend and historian Dr Huw Lewis-Jones paid tribute to a gentle soul and fine climber who shunned the limelight, the paper reported.

Dr Lewis-Jones, the former curator at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, who first met Mr Lowe in 2005, branded low him a hero.

Lewis-Jones said he doesn't often use that word but then it is not very often that you get to meet one.

A book of memoirs and photographs from the climb by Lowe, which he worked on with Dr Lewis-Jones, is due to be published in May.