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 & reason for the recognition | Award category (date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. | |||
| Fairuz | 1935 – Present | ||
| František Fajtl | |||
| Pierre Farah, Pr. | Surgeon, Member of the French Academy of Medicine | ||
| Henry Farman | |||
| Horace Farquhar, 1st Earl Farquhar | |||
| Charles S. Farnsworth | |||
| Faucher de Saint-Maurice | |||
| William Fawcett | 1894 – 1974 | ||
| Nabil Fekir | World Cup winning footballer | ||
| Logan Feland | |||
| Samuel Morse Felton Jr. [9] | 1853 – 1930 | ||
| Carlo Feraud de Villy | |||
| Frank Ferrington | 1923 – 2006 | ||
| Henri Fertet | 1926 – 1943 | French Resistance fighter | |
| Francis Worgan Festing | |||
| David Feuerwerker | |||
| Mustafa Fevzi Çakmak | |||
| Art Fiala | |||
| Benjamin Eugene Fichel | Artist | TBA (1870) | |
| Eugen Filotti | |||
| Carlos Finlay | 1833 – 1915 | ||
| Alfred Finnigan | |||
| Hicri Fişek | |||
| Hicri Fişek | 1918 – 2002 | ||
| Şadan Fişek | 1922 – 2002 | ||
| Eugène Fiset | |||
| Hamilton Fish III | |||
| Stanislas Flache | 1919 – Present | ||
| Gustave Flaubert | |||
| Gordon Van de Meer Fleming | 1921 – Present | ||
| Renée Fleming | |||
| Robert John Fleming | |||
| Joel Lafayette Fletcher, Jr. | 1897 – 1972 | ||
| Maurice Floquet | |||
| Brian Flowers, Baron Flowers | |||
| Ferdinand Foch | |||
| René Fonck | |||
| Just Fontaine | |||
| George Forbes (scientist) | |||
| Glenn Ford | |||
| Léonard-Léopold Forgemol de Bostquénard | |||
| Laurent Fortin | 1967 – Present | ||
| Victor Fortune | |||
| Tsuguharu Foujita | Japanese painter, who became a French national | ||
| Georges Fournier | |||
| Jacques Fournier | 1924 – Present | French industrialist and president of Dumez | |
| Maximilien Sebastien Foy | |||
| Abraham Foxman | |||
| Français of Nantes | |||
| Auguste Franchomme | |||
| Denis Francoise Boulanger | 1796 – 1849 | ||
| Aleksander Fredro | |||
| Paul L. Freeman, Jr. | |||
| Mirella Freni | |||
| Inès de La Fressange, Roger Vivier | Representative and first model to receive the medal | ||
| Frederick Carl Frieseke | |||
| Varian Fry | 1907 – 1967 | Operated a refugee network from Marseille; helped over 2,000 people escape the Holocaust in 1940-41. | 1967. Chevalier. |
