The French government gives out the Legion of Honour awards, to both French[1] and foreign[2] nationals, based on a recipient's exemplary services rendered to France, or to the causes supported by France. This award is divided into five distinct categories (in ascending order[3]), i.e. three ranks: Knight, Officer, Commander, and two titles: Grand Officer and Grand Cross. Knight is the most common and is awarded for either at least 20 years of public service or acts of military or civil bravery.[3] The rest of the categories have a quota for the number of years of service in the category below before they can be awarded. The Officer rank requires a minimum of eight years as a Knight, and the Commander, the highest civilian category for a non-French citizen, requires a minimum of five years as an Officer. The Grand Officer and the Grand Cross are awarded only to French citizens, and each requires three years' service in their respective immediately lower rank.[4] The awards are traditionally published and promoted on 14 July.[5]
The following is a non-exhaustive list of recipients of the Legion of Honour awards, since the first ceremony in May 1803.[3] 2,550 individuals can be awarded the insignia every year.[5] The total number of awards is close to 1 million[6] (estimated at 900,000 in 2021,[5] including over 3,000 Grand Cross recipients[7]), with some 92,000 recipients alive today.[8] Only until 2008 was gender parity achieved amongst the yearly list of recipients, with the total number of women recipients since the award's establishment being only 59 at the end of the second French empire and only 26,000 in 2021.[5]
| Recipient | Dates (birth – death) |
General Work, and reason for the recognition | Award category (date) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan Kaczmarek | ||||
| Jean-Pierre Kahane | ||||
| N'Golo Kanté | World Cup winning footballer | |||
| Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor | 1953 | Jewish leader, philanthropist and businessman | ||
| Crown Prince Alexander II Karađorđević | ||||
| Prince Bojidar Karageorgevitch | 1862 – 1908 | Serbian prince | ||
| Feridun Karakaya | ||||
| Juhani Kaskeala | ||||
| Bentley Kassal | ||||
| Harry B. Kates, Jr | 1923 – present | WW2 Veteran | ||
| Aki Kaurismäki | ||||
| Danny Kaye[9] | ||||
| Tevfik Remzi Kazancıgil[10] | Turkish physician and Professor in Medicine | TBA (September 14, 1954) | ||
| Frank B. Kellogg | ||||
| Gene Kelly | ||||
| Raymond W. Kelly | ||||
| M Stephen Kellman | 1923 – present | |||
| Yaşar Kemal | 1923 – present | Turkish novelist | ||
| Raymond Kendall | ||||
| Duncan Kerr | Knight (23 August 2011) | |||
| Mohamad Keyvan | 1909 – 1987 | Iranian Civil and Structural Engineer | ||
| Abbas Kiarostami | 1940 – present | Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer | ||
| Dame Carol Kidu[11][12][13] | 1948 - present | Papua New Guinean politician and human rights campaigner | ||
| Philippe Kieffer | ||||
| Jean-Claude Killy | ||||
| Jeong H. Kim | ||||
| Young-Oak Kim | ||||
| Presnel Kimpembe | World Cup winning footballer | |||
| Ernest King | ||||
| Julian Klaczko | ||||
| Franciszek Kleeberg | ||||
| Jacques Paul Klein | 1939-Present | Special Representative of the Secretary General | 15 May 2000 | |
| Ralph Klein[14] | 1942 – 2013 | Canadian politician. | ||
| Matti Klinge | ||||
| Augusta Déjerine-Klumpke | 1859 – 1927 | Physician | ||
| Dorothea Klumpke | ||||
| Karol Kniaziewicz | ||||
| Professor Roy Knight | 1907 – 1999 | Professor of French, scholar of 17th-century tragic drama | ||
| Louis Aston Knight | 1873 – 1948 | American landscape painter | ||
| Edmund Knoll-Kownacki | ||||
| Blanche Knopf | American publisher. Recognised for his Work publishing French literature. | Officer (1960) | ||
| William A. Knowlton | ||||
| John Immanuel Knudson[15] | Professor of History and Economics, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn | TBA (1935) | ||
| Adam Koc | 1891 – 1969 | Polish politician, soldier and journalist | ||
| Maurice Koechlin | ||||
| Ossip Komissarov | A Russian hat master (Kostroma province). Recognised for unwittingly foiling an assassination attempt on the Russian Emperor Alexander II. | Knight (TBA)[16] | ||
| Wladyslaw Konopczynski | ||||
| C. Everett Koop[17] | TBA (1980) | |||
| Raymond Kopa | 1931 – present | French footballer | ||
| Wojciech Kossak | ||||
| Sir John Kotelawala | ||||
| Lansana Kouyaté | ||||
| Jan Kozietulski | ||||
| Jacek Kuroń | 1934 – 2004 | Polish historian | ||
| Akira Kurosawa | 1910 – 1998 | Japanese film director, producer and screenwriter | ||
| Yevhen Kushnaryov | 1951 – 2007 | Ukrainian politician | ||
| Emir Kusturica | ||||
| Stanislaw Kutrzeba |
See also
edit
- Legion of Honour
- List of Legion of Honour recipients by name
- List of foreign recipients of Legion of Honour by name
- List of foreign recipients of the Legion of Honour by country
- List of British recipients of the Legion of Honour for the Crimean War
- Legion of Honour Museum
- Ribbons of the French military and civil awards
- War Cross (France)
References
edit- ^ Légion Code, article 16.
- ^ Les étrangers qui se seront signalés par les services qu’ils ont rendus à la France ou aux causes qu’elle soutient, Légion Code, art. 128.
- ^ a b c "France train attack: Chris Norman awarded Legion d'honneur". BBC News. 24 August 2015. Archived from the original on 27 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ DM, Florey (29 March 2017). "Michelle Yeoh receives France's highest civilian honour". Cinema Online. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2021. Alt URL
- ^ a b c d "The Grand Chancellery is co-producing a film on women and the Legion of Honor". The Grand Chancellery of the Legion of Honour. Archived from the original on 24 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
- ^ "Legion of Honour". Australian Government – Department of Veteran's Affairs. 31 January 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ Wattel, Michel; Wattel, Béatrice (2009). "Les Grand Croix de la Légion d'honneur. De 1805 à nos jours, titulaires français et étrangers". Archives & Culture.
- ^ Benoist, Chloé (18 December 2020). "Explained: Sisi, Macron and the dubious history of France's Legion of Honour". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
- ^ "French Honor Danny Kaye". The Modesto Bee. 26 February 1986. Retrieved 18 January 2011.
- ^ "Tarihte Bugün (Today in History)". Tarihtebugun.gen.tr. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
- ^ "French honour for Dame Carol"[permanent dead link], Liama Abaijah, The National, February 13, 2009
- ^ "Décoration de Dame Carol Kidu" Archived 2009-06-25 at the Wayback Machine, French embassy to Papua New Guinea, February 12, 2009
- ^ Dame Carol's speech upon receiving the Légion d'honneur Archived September 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ CKUA Radio News, March 27, 2008.
- ^ "John I. Knudson, Ex-Professor, 70 (Obituary)". The New York Times. 26 August 1959.
- ^ "3 россиянина, награждённые орденом Почётного легиона за необычные заслуги (3 Russians Awarded Légion d'honneur for Unusual Merits)". Russian Daily "Sobesednik". 16 August 2013. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
- ^ "The C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth". Retrieved 17 July 2021.