View photos: Sir Edmund's lifeKEY POINTS:
Kiwi singer Nick Madden will hold centre stage at Sir Edmund Hillary's royal thanksgiving service in London, hosted by Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle tonight.
Mr Madden is a lay clerk in the St George's Chapel Windsor choir, which will sing a song composed by his father
Richard Madden entitled: How Beautiful Upon the Mountains.
The service will also include a karanga and addresses from Prime Minister Helen Clark and Sir Edmund's son Peter. Opera singer Jonathan Lemalu is also singing at the service.
"It's a huge privilege and an honour that my father's music has been chosen for this," Mr Madden said.
The piece opens with the text: "How beautiful upon the mountains are they that bring good tidings".
"It is really apt for Sir Edmund Hillary. It comes across quite cheesy, I know, but it is appropriate for such a man," Mr Madden said.
"I introduced Dad's music (to the choir's repertoire); I don't know who chose the music but I'd say it was one of the Queen's advisers. It was someone quite high up," Mr Madden said.
Mr Madden, who is originally from Dunedin, is now a professional singer in London, in addition to his work with the St George's Chapel choir.
"It's a really important event for New Zealand. I can't believe I'm involved in it," Mr Madden said.
The service will be broadcast live on TV1 from 11pm tonight.
It will include the laying up of Sir Ed's Knight of the Garter banner, from the oldest British order of chivalry.
The Queen was not at his Auckland funeral but offered a private audience with his widow, Lady June Hillary, after the formal service of thanksgiving at Windsor Castle.
Mr Madden said up to 5000 New Zealanders are expected to watch the CCTV footage that will be available outside the chapel.
He said the BBC had been running news items on the impending service and the New Zealand newspaper based in London had given the event good coverage.
Aside from his father's piece, the choir will sing God Save the Queen and a hymn by John Rutter entitled: Hymn to the Creator of Light.
Sir Edmund achieved world fame when he became the first man to climb Mt Everest in May 1953.
News of him conquering the world's tallest peak reached London as the Queen was crowned after the death of her father, King George VI.
Sir Ed's ashes were scattered on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour after he said in his book, View from the Summit, he never had any real desire to end his days at the bottom of a crevasse on a mountain.
He said he wanted to die peacefully and wanted his ashes "spread on the beautiful waters of the Hauraki Gulf to be washed gently ashore maybe on the many pleasant beaches near the place where I was born".
"Then the full circle of my life will be complete," he wrote.
Sir Ed died on January 11 this year, aged 88.
- with NZPA
