Edward FitzGerald

Edward Arthur FitzGerald (10 May 1871 – 2 January 1931) was an American-born mountaineer and soldier of British descent, best known for leading the expedition which made the first ascent of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the American Continent, in 1897. Background and education FitzGerald was born in 1871 at Litchfield, Connecticut, and was the third son of William John FitzGerald, barrister, a British subject, and Mary, daughter of Eli White, of New York. He was educated at St Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1890 but did not graduate. His elder brother was Augustine (called Austin), a painter, and his elder sister was Caroline, a poet. Mountaineering He joined the Himalayan explorer Martin Conway for a walk across the Alps in 1894, where he met the Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen. Sufficiently impressed, FitzGerald decided to hire Zurbriggen as his guide for the next five years.