THE secret letters from British mountaineer George Mallory to the North Yorkshire teacher who captivated his heart - even though they never met - are to be auctioned off.

Bentham schoolteacher Eleanor Marjorie Holmes was just 19 years old when she sent a fan letter to the married climber who gained recognition for taking part in the first expeditions to Mount Everest.

Sparking his interest in that first missive in 1923, the pair continued to exchange letters until his last, ill-fated attempt on Everest the following year.

Mallory opened his heart to his female admirer, who at the time was 17 years his junior and living with her family in Bentham.

And although they never met, it was clear their correspondence meant a great deal to both of them.

As Mallory tells her in the first letter: "Oh, I like your letter well enough. I'm touched by it. Dear girl, you give me the idea of a joy in you that wells up and bubbles over merely at hearing from me. And you mean it, for I see you're true – quite true all the way through I think."

He goes on to say he thinks it is 'really a piece of luck that we should begin to know each other through letters' but then asks: "By the way, are you beautiful? I hope not.

"If you are quite ugly I will guarantee that when we meet we have the time of our lives; if you are plain, of a moderate plainness, I will promise you not to be too damnably polite or stiff; but if you are beautiful Heaven help me; I shall shut up like a sea anemone."

While her side of the correspondence does not survive, his constant anxiety that she mark her letters as "Personal" when addressed to his office and "George Mallory Esq" when at home - in case his wife Ruth opened it - makes it clear that her letters were just as outspoken.

Most poignant of all are his final thoughts of their correspondence, written during his final voyage to India.

He wrote: "Can you love a shadow – a mere hand that spins lame halting words and belongs in some way to a mere name in the newspapers? But words are thoughts, and thoughts are men and women. Can thoughts love each other? Clearly they must."

Miss Holmes worked at what is now Bentham Community Primary School but moved to London after Mallory's disappearance.

The school's log book for 1924 shows that she started on September 3 and resigned on September 30.

In 1929 the teacher married Maurice Newfield, a doctor, who she met the previous year.

Their son Gabriel Newfield, 85, discovered his mother's secret relationship but he did not come across the letters until her death at 74 years old in 1978.

The series of ten autographed letters go on sale at Bonhams, in London, on Wednesday (November 11), and are estimated to fetch £20,000-£30,000.