| Date | Founder's Medal | Contribution | Patron's Medal | Contribution |
|---|
| 1900 | H. H. P. Deasy | For exploring and survey work in Central Asia | James McCarthy | For great services to geographical science in exploring and mapping all parts of the kingdom of Siam |
| 1899 | G. L. Binger | For valuable work within the great bend of the Niger | Fernand Foureau | For continuous exploration in the Sahara |
| 1898 | Sven Hedin | For important exploring work in Central Asia | Robert E. Peary, USN | For explorations in Northern Greenland, and especially for discovering the northern termination of the Greenland ice |
| 1897 | P. Semenoff | For his long-continued efforts in promoting Russian exploration in Central Asia | George Mercer Dawson | For exploration in the North West Territories and Alaska |
| 1896 | William MacGregor | For services to geography in British New Guinea, in exploring, mapping and giving information on the natives | St. George Littledale | For important journeys in the Pamirs and Central Asia |
| 1895 | John Murray | For services to physical geography, especially oceanography, and for his work on board the Challenger | George Curzon | For travels and researches in Persia, French Indo-China, the Hindu Kush, and Pamirs |
| 1894 | H. Bower | For his remarkable journey across Tibet, from west to east | Elisée Reclus | For eminent services rendered to Geography as the author of La Nouvelle Géographie Universelle |
| 1893 | Frederick Selous | In recognition of twenty years' exploration and surveys in South Africa | William Woodville Rockhill | For his travels and explorations in Western China and Tibet |
| 1892 | Alfred Russel Wallace | The well-known naturalist and traveller and co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of natural selection, in recognition of the high geographical value of his great works | Edward Whymper | For his route-map and detailed survey among the Great Andes of the Equator |
| 1891 | James Hector | For investigations pursued as Naturalist to the Palliser expedition | Fridtjof Nansen | For having been first to cross the inland ice of Greenland ... as well as for his qualities as a scientific geographer |
| 1890 | Emin Pasha | For the great services he rendered to Geography during his twelve years' administration of the Equatorial Province of Egypt | F. E. Younghusband | For his journey from Manchuria and Pekin to Kashmir, and especially for his route-surveys and topographical notes |
| 1889 | A. D. Carey | For his remarkable journey in Central Asia during which he travelled 4,750 miles through regions never visited by an Englishman | G. Radde | For a life devoted to the promotion of Scientific Geography |
| 1888 | Clements R. Markham | In acknowledgment or the value or his numerous contributions to geographical literature ... on his retirement from the Secretaryship of the Society after 25 years' service | H. Wissmann | In recognition of his great achievements as an explorer in Central Africa |
| 1887 | T. H. Holdich | For zeal and devotion in carrying out surveys of Afghanistan | G. Grenfell | For extensive explorations in the Cameroons and Congo |
| 1886 | A. W. Greely | For having so considerably added to our knowledge of the shores of the Polar Sea and the interior of Grinnell Land | Guido Cora | For important services as a writer and cartographer |
| 1885 | Joseph Thomson | For his zeal, promptitude and success during two expeditions into East Central Africa | H. E. O’Neill | For his 13 journeys of exploration along the coast and into the interior of Mozambique |
| 1884 | A. R. Colquhoun | For his journey from Canton to the Irrawadi | Julius von Haast | For his extensive explorations in the Southern Island of New Zealand |
| 1883 | Joseph Hooker | For eminent services to scientific geography | E. Colborne Baber | For scientific works during his many exploratory journeys in the interior of China |
| 1882 | Gustav Nachtigal | For his journeys through the Eastern Sahara | John Kirk | For unremitting services to Geography, as a naturalist, as second-in-command to Livingstone, and as H.M.Consul-General at Zanzibar |
| 1881 | Serpa Pinto | For his journey across Africa ... during which he explored 500 miles of new country | Benjamin Leigh Smith | For important discoveries along the coast of Franz-Josef Land |
| 1880 | A. Louis Palander | For his services in connection with the Swedish Arctic Expeditions in the Vega | Ernest Giles | For his explorations and surveys in Australia |
| 1879 | N. Prejevalsky | For successive expeditions and route-surveys in Mongolia and the high plateau of Northern Tibet | N. W. J. Gill [7] | For important work along the Northern frontier of Persia |
| 1878 | Ferdinand von Richthofen | For his extensive travels and scientific explorations in China | Henry Trotter | For services to Geography which resulted in the connection of the Trigonometrical Survey of India with Russian Surveys from Siberia |
| 1877 | George Nares | For having commanded the Arctic Expedition of 1875–6, during which ships and sledge parties reached a higher Northern latitude than had previously been attained | Nain Singh | For his great journeys and surveys in Tibet and along the Upper Brahmaputra, during which he determined the position of Lhasa and added largely to our knowledge of the map of Asia |
| 1876 | Verney Lovett Cameron | For his journey across Africa from Zanzibar to Benguela, and his survey of Lake Tanganyika | John Forrest | For his numerous successful explorations in Western Australia |
| 1875 | Karl Weyprecht | For his enterprise and ability in command of expeditions to Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla | Julius Payer | For explorations and discoveries in the Arctic regions |
| 1874 | Georg Schweinfurth | For his explorations in Africa | P. Egerton Warburton | For his successful journey across the previously unknown western interior of Australia |
| 1873 | Ney Elias | For his enterprise and ability in surveying the course of the Yellow River, and for his journey through Western Mongolia | Henry Morton Stanley | For his Relief of Livingstone, and for bringing his valuable journal and papers to England |
| 1872 | Henry Yule | For eminent services to geography | Robert B. Shaw | For journeys in Eastern Turkistan, and for his extensive astronomical and hypsometrical observations |
| 1871 | Roderick Murchison | Who for 40 years watched over the (Royal Geographical) Society with more than paternal solicitude, and has at length placed it among the foremost of our scientific societies | A. Keith Johnston | For distinguished services in the promotion of physical geography |
| 1870 | George W. Hayward | For his journey into Eastern Turkistan, and for reaching the Pamir Steppe | Francis Garnier | For his extensive surveys ... from Cambodia to the Yangtze-kiang ... and for bringing his expedition to safety after the death of his chief |
| 1869 | A. E. Nordenskiöld | For designing and carrying out the Swedish expeditions to Spitsbergen ... whereby great additions have been made to our acquittance with zoology, botany, geology and meteorology | Mary Somerville | Who throughout her very long life has been eminently distinguished by her proficiency in those branches of science which form the basis of Physical Geography |
| 1868 | Augustus Petermann | For his important services as a Writer and Cartographer | Gerhard Rohlfs | For his extensive travels in the interior of Northern Africa ... and especially for his traverse of the continent from Tripoli to Lagos |
| 1867 | Alexis Boutakoff | For being first to launch and navigate ships in the Sea of Aral ... and for his survey of the mouths of the Oxus | Isaac Hayes | For his expedition towards the open Polar Sea |
| 1866 | Thomas Thomson | For his researches in the Western Himalayas and Tibet | William Chandless | For his Survey of the River Purus in South America |
| 1865 | T. G. Montgomerie | For his great trigonometrical journey from the plains of the Punjab to the Karakoram Range | Samuel Baker | For his vigorous explorations in the interior of Africa |
| 1864 | J. A. Grant | For his journey across Eastern Equatorial Africa with Captain Speke | Carl von der Decken | For his geographical surveys of Kilimandjaro |
| 1863 | Francis Thomas Gregory | For successful explorations in Western Australia | John Arrowsmith | For the very important services (in cartography) he has rendered to geographical science |
| 1862 | Robert O'Hara Burke | In remembrance of that gallant explorer who with his companion Wills, perished after having traversed the continent of Australia | Thomas Blakiston | For his survey of the Yangtze-kiang |
| 1861 | John Hanning Speke | For his eminent geographical discoveries in Africa, and especially his discovery of the great lake Victoria Nyanza | John McDouall Stuart | For very remarkable explorations in the interior of Australia |
| 1860 | Lady Franklin | For self-sacrificing perseverance in sending out expeditions to ascertain the fate of her husband | Leopold McClintock | For the skill and fortitude displayed by him and his companion in their search for records of the lost [Franklin] expedition and for valuable coast surveys |
| 1859 | Richard Francis Burton | For his various exploratory enterprises, and especially for his perilous expedition with Captain. J. H. Speke to the great lakes in Eastern Africa | John Palliser | for the valuable results of his explorations in the Rocky Mountains of North America |
| 1858 | Richard Collinson | For discoveries in the Arctic Regions | Alexander Bache | For extensive and accurate surveys of America |
| 1857 | Augustus C. Gregory | For extensive and important explorations in Western and Northern Australia | Andrew Scott Waugh | For geodetical operations, as remarkable for their extent as for their accuracy, whereby [India] has been covered by triangulation |
| 1856 | Elisha Kent Kane | For services and discoveries in the Polar Regions during the American Expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin | Heinrich Barth | For his extensive explorations in Central Africa, his excursions about Lake Chad and his perilous journey to Timbuctu |
| 1855 | David Livingstone | For his recent explorations in Africa | Charles John Andersson | For travels in South Western Africa |
| 1854 | William Henry Smyth | For his valuable Maritime Surveys in the Mediterranean | Robert McClure | For his remarkable exertions ... in navigating his ship through the ice of the Polar Seas, and for his discovery of the North West Passage |
| 1853 | Francis Galton | For fitting out and conducting an expedition to explore the centre of Southern Africa | E. A. Inglefield | For his enterprising survey of the coasts of Baffin Bay, Smith Sound and Lancaster Sound |
| 1852 | John Rae | For his survey of Boothia under most severe privations ... and for his very important contributions to the Geography of the Arctic | Henry Strachey | For extensive explorations and surveys in Western Tibet |
| 1851 | George Wallin | For his interesting and important travels in Arabia | Thomas Brunner | For meritorious labours in exploring the Middle Island (South Island) of New Zealand |
| 1850 | Not awarded; a Chronometer Watch presented to David Livingstone | For his journey to the great lake of Ngami | John Charles Frémont of the U.S. Topographical Engineers | For his important geographical labours in the far West of the American Continent |
| 1849 | Austen Henry Layard | For important contributions to Asiatic Geography, interesting researches in Mesopotamia, and for his discovery of the remains of Nineveh | Charles von Hugel | For his enterprising exploration of Cashmere (Kashmir) |
| 1848 | James Brooke | For his expedition to Borneo, and the zeal he has shown in promoting geographical discovery | Charles Wilkes, USN | For the talent and perseverance he displayed in a voyage in the Antarctic regions ... and for splendid scientific work |
| 1847 | Charles Sturt | For explorations in Australia, and especially for his journey fixing the limit of Lake Torrens and penetrating into the heart of the continent to lat. 24° 30'S, long. 138° 0'E | Ludwig Leichhardt | For explorations in Australia, especially for his journey from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. |
| 1846 | P. E. de Strzelecki | For exploration in the south eastern portion of Australia | A. von Middendorff | For explorations in Northern and Eastern Siberia |
| 1845 | Charles Beke | For his exploration in Abyssinia | Carl Ritter | For his important geographical labours |
| 1844 | W. J. Hamilton | For valuable researches in Asia Minor | Adolph Erman | For important geographical labours in Siberia and Kamstchatka |
| 1843 | Edward John Eyre | For his enterprising and extensive explorations in Australia, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty | Lieut. John Frederick A. Symonds | For his triangulation over Palestine and for his determination of the difference between the level of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea |
| 1842 | James Clark Ross | For his brilliant achievement at the South Pole, to within less than 12° of which he safely navigated his vessels, discovering a great Antarctic continent | Edward Robinson | For his valuable work Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia |
| 1841 | H. Raper | For excellent work on Practical Navigation and Nautical Astronomy | John Wood | For his journey to the source of the Oxus and for valuable labours on the Indus |
| 1840 | Henry Rawlinson | For researches in Persian Guayana | Robert H. Schomburgk | For his perseverance and success in exploring the territory and investigating the resources of British Guyana |
| 1839 | Thomas Simpson | For tracing the hitherto unexplored coast of North America | Eduard Rüppell | For his travels and researches in Nubia, Arabia and Abyssinia |
| 1838 | Francis Rawdon Chesney | For valuable materials in comparative and physical geography in Syria, Mesopotamia and the delta of Susiana |
| 1837 | Robert Fitzroy | For his survey of the coasts of South America, from the Rio de la Plata to Guayaquil in Peru |
| 1836 | George Back | For his recent discoveries in the Arctic, and his memorable journey down the Great Fish River |
| 1835 | Alexander Burnes | For his remarkable and important journeys through Persia |
| 1834 | John Ross | For his discovery of Boothia Felix and King William Land and for his famous sojourn of four winters in the Arctic |
| 1833 | John Biscoe | For his discovery of Graham's Land and Enderby's Land in the Antarctic |
| 1832 | Richard Lander | For important services in determining the course and termination of the Niger | First award |
