Sir Ranulph Fiennes was, with Charles Burton, the first man to reach both poles by surface travel and, with Mike Stroud, the first to cross the Antarctic Continent unsupported. In the 1960s he was removed from the SAS Regiment for misuse of explosives but, joining the army of the Sultan... Read more
Sir Ranulph Fiennes was, with Charles Burton, the first man to reach both poles by surface travel and, with Mike Stroud, the first to cross the Antarctic Continent unsupported.
In the 1960s he was removed from the SAS Regiment for misuse of explosives but, joining the army of the Sultan of Oman, received that country’s Bravery Medal on active service in 1971.
He is the only person yet to have been awarded two clasps to the Polar medal for both Antarctic and the Arctic regions. Fiennes has led over 30 expeditions including the first polar circumnavigation of the Earth.
In 2003 he ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in aid of the British Heart Foundation,3½ months after a massive heart attack.
In 1993 Her Majesty the Queen awarded Fiennes the Order of the British Empire (OBE) because, on the way to breaking records, he has raised over £18 million for charity. He was named Best Sportsman in the 2007 ITV Great Briton Awards and in 2009 he became the oldest Briton to reach the summit of Everest, raising a total of £6.3m for Marie Curie Cancer Care. The Coldest Journey in 2014 raised £1.3 million for Seeing is Believing. In 2015 he successfully completed the Marathon des Sables raising over £2 million for Marie Curie.
He has written 27 books, including Cold came out in 2013, Agincourt was published in September 2014, Heat October 2015, Fear and Colder 2016, The Elite 2019, Shackleton 2021 and his latest book Climb Your Mountain was released in 2022.