The French government gives out the Legion of Honour awards, to both French and foreign 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), 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. 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. The awards are traditionally published and promoted on 14 July.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of recipients of the Legion of Honour awards, since the first ceremony in May 1803. 2,550 individuals can be awarded the insignia every year. The total number of awards is close to 1 million (estimated at 900,000 in 2021, including over 3,000 Grand Cross recipients), with some 92,000 recipients alive today. 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.
List of Légion d'honneur recipients by name
See also
- Legion of Honour
- List of Legion of Honour recipients 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
- 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.
- ^ "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
- ^ "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.
- "The furrowed brow". time magazine. 4 April 1949. Archived from the original on 29 May 2011. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
- "Isabelle MASSIEU fut la première occidentale à se rendre, non seulement au Laos, en 1897, mais dans bon nombre de contrées lointaines de l'Inde, de l'Asie, de la Chine…". Lao Mag (in French). 12 May 2016. Archived from the original on 28 August 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- Yalioua, Zahia (11 May 2015). "Mimie Mathy décorée de la Légion d'honneur par Line Renaud" (in French). TF1. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
- "Photograph caption". Ward's Auto World. 17: 29. 1981. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
- "France confers Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour on PM Modi". Hindustan Times. 14 July 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
- Caemmerer, H. Paul. "Charles Moore and the Plan of Washington." Records of the Columbia Historical Society. Vol. 46/47 (1944/1945): 237-258 254.
- Schofield, Jack (30 April 2012). "Roland Moreno obituary, Smart-card inventor who missed out on global recognition but was a hero in France". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
- "Nouvelles Vendredi, 23. JUIN, 2000". 23 June 2000. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- Mortimer, Luke (3 May 2019). "Veteran awarded Legion of Honour decades after service in WWII". Daily telegraph. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
External links
- Official website
- Léonore database, census of recipients of the Legion of Honor (deceased before 1977), on the French Ministry of Culture website (in French)
- Code of the Legion of Honor and the Military Medal, Légifrance (in French)