1. Ranulph Fiennes later undertook numerous expeditions and was the first person to visit both the North Pole and South Pole by surface means and the first to completely cross Antarctica on foot.
52 Facts About Ranulph Fiennes
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Ranulph Fiennes has written numerous books about his army service and his expeditions as well as books on explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton.
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Whilst commanding the Royal Scots Greys in Italy Ranulph Fiennes' father trod on a German anti-personnel S-mine and died of his wounds eleven days later in Naples on 24 November 1943.
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Ranulph Fiennes' mother was Audrey Joan, younger daughter of Sir Percy Newson.
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Ranulph Fiennes inherited his father's baronetcy, becoming the 3rd Twisleton-Wykeham-Ranulph Fiennes baronet at his birth.
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Ranulph Fiennes then returned to be educated at Sandroyd School, Wiltshire, and then at Eton College.
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Ranulph Fiennes was later seconded to the Special Air Service where he specialised in demolitions.
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Ranulph Fiennes was initially posted to another cavalry regiment but was eventually permitted to return to the Royal Scots Greys.
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Ranulph Fiennes spent the last two years of his army career seconded to the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces.
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Ranulph Fiennes led several raids deep into rebel-held territory on the Djebel Dhofar and was decorated for bravery by the Sultanate.
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Ranulph Fiennes led expeditions up the White Nile on a hovercraft in 1969 and on Norway's Jostedalsbreen Glacier in 1970.
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In 1992 Ranulph Fiennes led an expedition that discovered what may be an outpost of the lost city of Iram in Oman.
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The expedition failed when his sleds fell through weak ice and Ranulph Fiennes was forced to pull them out by hand.
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Ranulph Fiennes sustained severe frostbite to the tips of all the fingers on his left hand, forcing him to abandon the attempt.
15.
Impatient at the pain the dying fingertips caused, Ranulph Fiennes cut them off himself with an electric fretsaw, just above where the blood and the soreness was.
16.
Originally Ranulph Fiennes had planned to run the first marathon on King George Island, Antarctica.
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Ranulph Fiennes said his cardiac surgeon had approved the marathons, providing his heart-rate did not exceed 130 beats per minute.
18.
Ranulph Fiennes later said that he forgot to pack his heart-rate monitor, and therefore did not know how fast his heart was beating.
19.
In June 2005, Ranulph Fiennes had to abandon an attempt to be the oldest Briton to climb Mount Everest when, in another climb for charity, he was forced to turn back as a result of heart problems, after reaching the final stopping point of the ascent.
20.
In 2008 Ranulph Fiennes made his second attempt to climb Mount Everest, getting to within 400 metres of the summit before bad timing and bad weather stopped the expedition.
21.
On 20 May 2009 Ranulph Fiennes reached the summit of Mount Everest, becoming the oldest British person to achieve this.
22.
Ranulph Fiennes became the first person to have climbed Everest and crossed both polar ice-caps.
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In successfully reaching the summit of Everest in 2009 Ranulph Fiennes became the first person to achieve all three goals.
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Ranulph Fiennes continues to compete in UK-based endurance events and has seen recent success in the veteran categories of some Mountain Marathon races.
25.
In September 2012 it was announced that Ranulph Fiennes was to lead the first attempt to cross Antarctica during the southern winter, in aid of the charity Seeing is Believing, an initiative to prevent avoidable blindness.
26.
Ranulph Fiennes had to pull out of the Coldest Journey expedition on 25 February 2013 because of frostbite and was evacuated from Antarctica.
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Ranulph Fiennes is a member of the libertarian pressure group The Freedom Association.
28.
Ranulph Fiennes appeared in the Polar Special episode, casually berating the three hosts for their flippant attitude toward the dangers of the Arctic.
29.
Ranulph Fiennes related this tale again during one of his appearances on Countdown, in which he referred to a brief film career that included an appearance alongside Liz Fraser.
30.
Between 1 and 5 October 2012, and again from 13 to 19 November 2013, Ranulph Fiennes featured on the Channel 4 game show Countdown as the celebrity guest in 'Dictionary Corner' and provided interludes based on his life stories and explorations.
31.
Ranulph Fiennes was an expert guest commentator on the PBS documentary Chasing Shackleton which aired in January 2014.
32.
Ranulph Fiennes makes a number of corporate and after dinner speeches.
33.
In 2019, Ranulph Fiennes appeared in a three part National Geographic documentary Egypt with the World's Greatest Explorer with his cousin and actor Joseph Ranulph Fiennes that re-traced his first expedition in Egypt back in the 1960s.
34.
Ranulph Fiennes married his childhood sweetheart, and fellow adventurer, Virginia Pepper on 9 September 1970.
35.
Ginny built up a herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle while Ranulph Fiennes was away on his expeditions.
36.
Ranulph Fiennes was the first woman to receive the Polar Medal in recognition of her research work into VLF radio propagation.
37.
Ranulph Fiennes conceived, organised and participated in the Transglobe Expedition.
38.
Ranulph Fiennes embarked on a lecture tour, where in Cheshire he met Louise Millington, whom he married at St Boniface's Church, Bunbury, one year and three weeks after Ginny's death.
39.
On 6 March 2010, Ranulph Fiennes was involved in a three-car collision in Stockport which resulted in minor injuries to himself and serious injuries to the driver of another car.
40.
Ranulph Fiennes had been in Stockport to participate in the annual High Peak Marathon in Derbyshire as part of a veterans' team known as Poles Apart that, despite the freezing conditions, managed to win the veterans' trophy in just over 12 hours.
41.
In 2003, shortly after boarding a flight to Scotland from Bristol Airport, Ranulph Fiennes suffered a heart attack and later underwent emergency bypass surgery.
42.
Ranulph Fiennes is a member of the Worshipful Company of Vintners and the Highland Society of London and holds honorary membership of the Travellers Club.
43.
In 1970, while serving with the Omani Army, Ranulph Fiennes received the Sultan's Bravery Medal.
44.
Ranulph Fiennes has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates, the first in 1986 by Loughborough University, followed in 1995 by University of Central England, in 2000 by University of Portsmouth, 2002 by Glasgow Caledonian University, 2005 by University of Sheffield, 2007 by University of Abertay Dundee and September 2011 by University of Plymouth.
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Ranulph Fiennes was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1982 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.
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Ranulph Fiennes remains the only person to have received a double clasp for both the Arctic and Antarctica.
47.
Ranulph Fiennes was called in to speak with the presenters after their constant joking and horseplay during their cold weather training.
48.
In May 2007, Ranulph Fiennes received ITV's Greatest Britons Award for Sport beating fellow nominees Lewis Hamilton and Joe Calzaghe.
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In October 2007 Ranulph Fiennes ranked 94th in a list of the "Top 100 living geniuses" published by The Daily Telegraph.
50.
In September 2011, Ranulph Fiennes was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Science from Plymouth University and, in July 2012, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Glamorgan.
51.
In December 2012, Ranulph Fiennes was named one of the Men of the Year for 2012 by Top Gear magazine.
52.
In October 2014 it was announced that Ranulph Fiennes would receive an honorary Doctorate of Science, from the University of Chester, in recognition of "outstanding and inspirational contribution to the field of exploration".