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]
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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 |
