Sir
Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes was born in 1944 and
educated at Eton. He spent 8 years in the army serving with
the Royal Scots Greys for a time before joining the SAS. He
was dismissed from the SAS following a prank in which he
blew up the set of the movie Doctor Doolittle. He was
subsequently moved to the Middle East and seconded to the
Sultan of Oman's forces in 1968 where he saw active service
and awarded the Sultan's Bravery Medal in 1970. In the same
year he married his wife, Virginia. (In 1987 ‘Ginny’ was the
first woman to be awarded the Polar Medal). Since 1969 when
he led the British Expedition on the White Nile, Ranulph
Fiennes has been at the forefront of many exploratory
expeditions.
Described in 1984 as the "World's Greatest Living Explorer" by the Guinness Book of Records, his expeditions around the world include:
· Transglobe (the first surface journey around the world's polar axis) 1979/1982, during which Ranulph Fiennes and Charles Burton became the first people ever to reach both poles by surface travel.
· North Polar Unsupported Expedition (furthest north unsupported record) 1986.
· Anglo Soviet North Pole Expedition 1990/91.
· Co-leader of the Ubar Expedition (which in 1991 discovered Ptolemy's long-lost Atlantis of the Sands, the frankincense centre of the world).
· Leader of the Pentland South Pole Expedition (which achieved the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic Continent and the longest unsupported polar journey in history) 1992/1993.
He has been awarded an honorary degree from Loughborough University, the University of Central England in Birmingham and the University of Portsmouth. The Royal Geographic Society awarded him with a Livingstone's Gold Medal in 1983 and a Founder's Medal in 1984. The Explorers Club of New York awarded Sir Ranulph with a Gold Medal and Honorary Life Membership in 1983. In 1997, The Royal Institute of Navigation awarded him Honorary Membership. In 2000 The Explorers Club, British Chapter, honoured Sir Ranulph with the Polar Exploration Millennium Award.
Sir Ranulph's expeditions have raised over £4.2 million for the Multiple Sclerosis Society, (which has enabled the building of Europe's first MS research centre in Cambridge) and £1.9 million for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. In 1993 he was awarded an OBE for 'human endeavour and charitable services'.
Sir Ranulph is also the author of several books including
his autobiography Living Dangerously, The Feather Men (UK
Number One
Best-seller), Atlantis of the Sands, Mind Over Matter (a
harrowing account of his Antarctic expedition), The Sett,
Beyond the Limits and his most recent The Secret Hunters.
In 1995 Her Majesty the Queen was graciously pleased to award Sir Ranulph a second clasp to the Polar Medal that he already has, in recognition of his outstanding achievements in Polar exploration and, in particular, his attempts to reach the North Pole between 1988 and 1990 and his successful trek across Antarctica in 1992/93. (No-one else has a double clasp medal each of which acknowledges both Arctic and Antarctic achievements).
In 2000 he attempted to walk solo and unsupported to the north pole. The expedition failed when his sleds fell through weak ice and Fiennes was forced to pull them out by hand. He sustained severe frostbite to the tips of several fingers, forcing him to abandon the attempt. Despite suffering from a heart attack and undergoing a double heart by-pass operation just four months previously, Fiennes joined up with Stroud again in 2003 to carry out the extraordinary feat of completing seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. Their route:
26th October - Race 1: Patagonia, South America
· 27th October - Race 2: Falkland Islands, "Antarctica"
· 28th October - Race 3: Sydney, Australasia
· 29th October - Race 4: Singapore, Asia
· 31st October - Race 5: London, Europe
· 31st October - Race 6: Cairo, Africa
1st November - Race 7: New York, North America
Speaking after the event, Fiennes said that the Singapore marathon had been by far the most difficult because of high humidity and pollution. He also said that his cardiac surgeon had approved the marathons providing his heart-rate did not exceed a 130 beats per minute; Fiennes later confessed to having forgotten to pack his heart-rate monitor, and as such does not know how fast his heart was actually beating.
Fiennes reached 28,500 feet in a 2005 attempt to climb Mt. Everest. He has joined the Victoria Falls Expedition, celebrating the 150th Anniversary of David Livingstone's discovery of Victoria Falls.
First Response is proud to be associated with Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
