Education
Wyn-Harris was educated at Gresham"s School, Holt, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where as an undergraduate he was a member of the University Mountaineering Club.
Wyn-Harris was educated at Gresham"s School, Holt, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where as an undergraduate he was a member of the University Mountaineering Club.
He was Governor of the Gambia from 1949 to 1958 and was knighted in 1952. In 1925, he made the first ascent without guides of the Brouillard Ridge on Mont Blanc. In 1929, while serving with the in Kenya, Wyn-Harris met mountaineer Eric Shipton and together they climbed the twin peaks of Mount Kenya, making the first ascent of Nelion, the secondary summit.
At around 8,460 m (27,920 ft), he discovered an ice axe, which was almost certainly a remnant of Mallory and Irvine"s ill-fated attempt at a first ascent in 1924.
Wyn-Harris returned to Everest in 1936, in an expedition again led by Hugh Ruttledge. Wyn-Harris served with the in Africa for over thirty years and was Governor of The Gambia from 1949 to 1958.
Subsequently, from October 1960 to June 1961, he served as Administrator of the Northern Cameroons, a region of Nigeria that previously had been a League of Nations mandate but had become a United Nations Trust Territory overseen by the United Kingdom. A United Nations plebiscite on the region"s future conducted during his tenure resulted in the region formally becoming part of Nigeria at the end of May 1961.
In 1953, he formally changed his name to Percy Wyn-Harris, from his birth name of Percy Wynne Harris.
Between 1962 and 1969, Wyn-Harris circumnavigated the globe in his sloop Spurwing, a Gunning Grundel.
A member of Hugh Ruttledge"s 1933 Mount Everest expedition, Wyn-Harris reached Edward Norton"s record height of 8,573 m (28,126 feet). 1941: Member of the Order of the British Empire (Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire).