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
| Recipient | Dates (birth – death) |
General work & reason for the recognition | Award category (date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Pacillo | One of the 100 selected D-Day veterans | TBA (6 June 2004) | |
| Boris Pahor | TBA | ||
| Louis Alexandre Pajot | Knight (22 October 1959) | ||
| John Painter (supercentenarian) | TBA | ||
| Euzhan Palcy |
style="white-space: nowrap; text-align:left"| TBA | ||
| Arthur Philippe | TBA | ||
| Orhan Pamuk | Turkish writer | TBA | |
| Maurice Papon | 1910–2007 | After being convicted for crimes against humanity in 1998-99 for his role during Vichy was dismissed from the order. on | TBA (Awarded:1961 Dismissed: 18 November 1999) |
| Asha Pandey | TBA | ||
| Paul Paray | TBA | ||
| Jacques Parisot | 1882-1967 | social medicine | Grand Cross |
| Jacques Parizeau | TBA | ||
| Robert M. Parker, Jr. | TBA | ||
| Tony Parker | TBA | ||
| Jack Parrot | D-Day veteran | TBA (2018) | |
| Arvo Pärt | 1935 - Present | Estonian composer | Knight (2011) |
| Earle E. Partridge | TBA | ||
| Louis Pasteur | 1822–1895 | French chemist | Grande Croix |
| Harry Patch | 1898–2009 | Last surviving British veteran of the trenches (World War I) | TBA (1995) |
| George S. Patton | American general | TBA | |
| Samuel Paty | 1973-2020 | French middle-school teacher who was murdered on 16/10/2020 and posthumously given the award. | TBA |
| Gen Paul | TBA | ||
| Benjamin Pavard | World Cup winning footballer | TBA | |
| Luciano Pavarotti | TBA | ||
| George Pearce | TBA | ||
| Ernest Peddell | 1899–2000 | Australian Private, 2nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force; | TBA (1998) |
| Barthélémy Pedinielli | Belonged to the 3rd Algerian Tirailleurs Regiment. Recognised for his commitment during the Second World War alongside the Free French forces. | Knight | |
| Malik Peiris | Hong Kong doctor/professor | TBA | |
| Ernest Peixotto | 1869–1940 | American illustrator and travel writer | TBA |
| Claiborne Pell | United States Senator | TBA | |
| Alphonse Frédéric Pellerin | 1833–1912 | French civil engineer | Knight (25 July 1905) |
| John Lysaght Pennefather | TBA | ||
| Jacques Pépin | 1935 - Present | Chef | Knight |
| Ronald Perelman | 1942 - Present | American businessman | TBA (1992) |
| Jacques Perfettini | TBA | ||
| Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon | TBA | ||
| Lester James Peries | Prolific Sri Lankan film director and recipient of Srilankabhimanya | TBA | |
| František Peřina | TBA | ||
| Eva Perón | 1919–1952 | First Lady of Argentina (1946-1952) and Spiritual Leader of the Nation of Argentina (1952–Present Day). | TBA (1947) |
| Joseph-Xavier Perrault | TBA | ||
| Jean Baptiste Perrin | TBA | ||
| Philippe Perrin | TBA | ||
| John J. Pershing | TBA | ||
| Peter I of Serbia | TBA | ||
| Peter II of Yugoslavia | TBA | ||
| Pedro II of Brazil | TBA | ||
| Zinovy Peshkov | TBA | ||
| Edmund Phelps | Director of the Center on Capitalism and Society. | TBA | |
| Edmund S. Phelps | TBA | ||
| Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux | 1815–1884 | painter | TBA |
| Sir Eric Phipps | 1875–1945 | British ambassador to Berlin (1933–36) and Paris (1936–39). | TBA |
| Frank Pickersgill | TBA | ||
| François-Édouard Picot | TBA | ||
| Abbé Pierre | TBA | ||
| Desmond Piers | TBA | ||
| Wallace Pike | 1899–1999 | Canadian WWI veteran of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. | TBA (1998) |
| Józef Pilsudski | TBA | ||
| Max L. Pilliard | TBA | ||
| Honoré Le Pimpec | TBA | ||
| Harold Pinter | 1930–2008 | British writer and political activist. | TBA (2007) |
| Robert Pires | 1973 - Present | French world cup winning football player | TBA |
| Tadeusz Piskor | TBA | ||
| Pedro José Amadeo Pissis | French geologist | TBA | |
| Michel Platini | TBA | ||
| Georges René Le Peley de Pléville | TBA | ||
| Henri Poincaré | 1854–1912 | Officer in 1894, then Commander in 1903 | |
| Paul Pogba | TBA | ||
| James H. Polk | TBA | ||
| Elena Poniatowska | TBA | ||
| Józef Antoni Poniatowski | TBA | ||
| Lily Pons | TBA | ||
| Lazare Ponticelli | 1897–2008 | Italian-born French veteran of World War I and supercentenarian. | TBA |
| Elvira Popescu | 1894–1993 | Romanian-born French actress. | TBA |
| Paolo Portoghesi | TBA | ||
| Marjorie Merriweather Post | TBA | ||
| Stanisław Kostka Potocki | TBA | ||
| William Didier-Pouget | 1864–1959 | French artist | Officer |
| Colin Powell | TBA | ||
| William C. Powers | 1946–2019 | President of the University of Texas at Austin. | TBA |
| Ignacy Pradzynski | TBA | ||
| Cedric Prakash | TBA | ||
| Alain Prost | Four-time Formula One champion | TBA | |
| Gilbert Pritzel | TBA | ||
| Moshe Prywes | 1914–1998 | Israeli physician and educator; first President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. | TBA |
| Denys Puech | TBA | ||
| Bill Purple | World War II Airforce Pilot | Knight (13 September 2013) | |
| Radomir Putnik | TBA | ||
| Daniel Pauly | 2017 | Marine biologist | Chevalier de la Légion D’Honneur |
See also
- Legion of Honour
- List of Legion of Honour recipients by name
- List of foreign recipients of Legion of Honour 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.
- "Orhan Pamuk Awarded Officier De l'Ordre National De La Legion D'Honneur". GettyImages. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
- "Ministère de la culture - Base Léonore". www2.culture.gouv.fr. Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- "D-Day veteran awarded Legion d'Honneur". BBC News. 19 December 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- "Le compositeur Arvo Pärt décoré de l'ordre de la Légion d'Honneur". Retrieved 3 November 2011.
- "Histoire des communes: l'Aigle". www.perche-gouet.net (in French). Cercle de Recherches Généalogiques du Perche-Gouët. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- "Pellerin (Alphonse). Châlons 1849" (PDF), Bulletin administratif. Société des anciens élèves des écoles nationales d'arts et métiers (in French), 11: 1255–1258, November 1912, retrieved 9 February 2023
- The Day I Met The OMELETTE GOD (Jacques Pépin), retrieved 1 September 2023
- "Death of a French Painter" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 November 1884.
- Ginoux, J. M.; Gerini, C. (2013). Henri Poincaré: A Biography Through the Daily Papers. World Scientific. p. 59. doi:10.1142/8956. ISBN 978-981-4556-61-3.
- William Didier-Pouget, Archives nationales, Ministère de la Culture
- Maeda, Wendy (14 September 2013). "Petersham man honored by French Legion of Honor for service during WWII". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- "Daniel Pauly knighted by the French government". Sea Around Us. 17 November 2017. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
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)