Baron Hunt of Llanfair Waterdine was Britain's twentieth-century Francis Drake - an adventurer and inspirational leader who returned home to present the gift of conquest to his newly crowned queen.

The first news of the success of the Everest expedition reached Britain on Coronation Day and the leader of the British team, Colonel Hunt - as he then was - received worldwide acclaim.

A month after the achievement he was knighted as the nation, under its new young monarch, revelled in a post-war period of vitality and confidence.

Although Lord Hunt never made it to the top of the world's highest mountain, his meticulous planning enabled Sir Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay to reach its summit on May 29, 1953.

The conquering of Everest was to prove his most famous exploit but his contribution to British life continued long after his retirement as a professional soldier.

Lord Hunt was born in India on June 22, 1910, the son of an Army captain. After his education at Marlborough College, he too started his own service career, training at Sandhurst before being commissioned in the King's Royal Rifle Corps in 1930 and seconded to the Indian police in 1934.

He took part in three previous expeditions to the Himalayas, in 1935, 1937, and 1940, sometimes accompanied by his wife, Joy, whom he married in 1936, a former tennis player of Wimbledon standard. They had four daughters.

During the Second World War he was an instructor in commando techniques and snow warfare and later he served in Egypt, Italy and Greece.

He was awarded the DSO in 1944 and the CBE in 1945. After the war he joined the staff of Allied Headquarters in Europe and then moved to headquarters of the First Corps of the British Army of the Rhine.

In 1952 the Army of the Rhine gave him special leave to organise the Everest expedition and gave the expedition its military precision.

To get four men and their tents, food, and oxygen into position for the final assault, hundreds of men and tonnes of baggage had to be deployed up the mountain.

Even though the headlines went to the men that reached the summit, Lord Hunt's planning ensured that a large number of men went a long way up the mountain and came down without accident.

After the Everest success he became Assistant Commandant of the Camberley Staff College and in 1956 he retired from the Army to become the first director of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. He returned many times to the mountains. He was President of the Alpine Club when it held its centenary gathering in Zermatt in 1957 and he led a rescue party which saved three members of the group overwhelmed by a blizzard during a climb. After retiring from the Duke's award scheme in 1966, he continued to play a prominent role in public life. Among his many roles was as chairman of the Parole Board, chairman of a body set up to examine the RUC, and leader of relief missions to Nigeria during the civil war there.

He was later a Liberal Democrat spokesman on the environment, home affairs, and penal affairs in the House of Lords. Lord Hunt was once described as ''the last of the English gentlemen'' and had a reputation for blunt honesty. When asked by some schoolchildren what Sir Edmund had said after conquering Everest, he told them: ''We've knocked the bastard off.'' He told his shocked audience: ''I think it is better that I told you the truth, even if it wasn't what you expected.''

That identification with young people and his championing of their cause remains one of the warmest memories of John Hunt for Doug Scott, now also a Himalayan veteran, whose major expeditions in the 70s and 80s had Hunt as patron. ''He was encouraging and helpful to young expeditioners to a quite amazing extent. He was committed to the idea that climbers went off and did everything in the most adventurous style possible and was very encouraging to small expeditions. Before Everest he was a considerable explorer in the Himalayas. Although he achieved a great deal in other areas, for example his work in Nigeria, he was always basically a climber who did not like to see the mountains used for political purposes or for raising money; he liked to keep climbing, pure and simple.

''When the educationalists were agitating to make climbing safe to suit their purposes, he set up a committee to consider the issues and it was his brilliant chairmanship which stopped them taking the risk out of climbing. He was a particularly eloquent speaker at climbing lectures when he was president of the Royal Geographical Society and he will be missed simply as a good person to consult and talk things over with.''