Draft:List of recipients of the Patron's Medal

• Comment: The Gold Medal (RGS) article already covers Patron's Medal recipients. AngusW🐶🐶F (bark • sniff) 17:03, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

---

Patron's Medal
Patron's Medal awarded to Edmund Hillary
Awarded for	the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery
Sponsored by	Sovereign of the United Kingdom
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	Royal Geographical Society
First awarded	1839

The Patron's Medal is a medal awarded annually by the Royal Geographical Society, upon approval of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, to individuals for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". Prior to 1902, the Patron's Medal was alternatively known as the Victoria Medal.

Foundation

From its foundation, the Royal Geographical Society received an annual grant from the Sovereign of the United Kingdom for awards with royal approval. The medal originated from an annual donation starting in 1831 of 50 guineas from King William IV. The award was instituted as the Royal Premium or Royal Award, an annual cash prize. When Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne, she announced her intention of continuing the grant commenced by her uncle. The council ultimately decided to divide the grant into two gold medals of equal standing; the Founder’s Medal in memory of the founding patron King William IV and the Patron's Medal in recognition of the active royal patron of the society.

Design

The medal, like the Founder's Medal, is a gold medallion designed by William Wyon, Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint. The reverse side shows a figure of Britannia, wearing a helmet and standing by a sextant and globe. She is holding a wreath in her outstretched right hand and a map in the left. The name of the recipient is engraved on the edge of the medal. The medal was struck in gold until 1974. From 1975 onwards it has been struck in silver-gilt. Exceptionally, on account of wars, the medals of 1918−21 and 1940 were struck in bronze.

Award history

While generally awarded annually, the Patron's Medal was not awarded in the years 1851, 1943 and 1944. In 1851, the council awarded no gold medals and instead awarded 25 guinea prizes to each of Georg August Wallin and Thomas Brunner. No awards were made in 1943 or 1944 on account of the Second World War.

List of recipients

Year	Name	Image	Description	Award Rationale
1839	Eduard Rüppell		German naturalist and explorer (1794-1884)
1840	Robert Hermann Schomburgk		German explorer, botanist, and ichthyologist (1804-1865)
1841	John Wood		Scottish naval officer, surveyor, cartographer and explorer
1842	Edward Robinson		American Biblical scholar (1794-1863)
1843	Julian Symonds		British Army officer and surveyor
1844	Georg Adolf Erman		German physicist
1845	Carl Ritter		German geographer (1779-1859)
1846	Alexander von Middendorff		Baltic German explorer and scientist (1815-1894)
1847	Ludwig Leichhardt		German explorer of Australia (1813-1848)
1848	Charles Wilkes		naval officer and explorer from the United States (1798-1877)
1849	Charles von Hügel		Austrian noble, army officer, diplomat, botanist, and explorer
1850	John C. Frémont		American politician, explorer and military officer (1813–1890)	For his important geographical labours in the far West of the American Continent
1852	Henry Strachey		British explorer
1853	Edward Augustus Inglefield		British Royal Navy admiral (1820-1894)
1854	Robert McClure		Royal Navy admiral and arctic explorer (1807-1873)
1855	David Livingstone		Scottish explorer and missionary (1813-1873)	For his recent explorations in Africa
1856	Heinrich Barth		German explorer (1821-1865)
1857	Andrew Scott Waugh		British army officer and Surveyor General of India (1810-1878)
1858	Alexander Dallas Bache		American scientist (1806-1867)
1859	John Palliser		British explorer
1860	Leopold McClintock		Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy (1819-1907)
1861	John McDouall Stuart		British explorer (1815-1866)
1862	Thomas Blakiston		British zoologist
1863	John Arrowsmith		British geographer
1864	Karl Klaus von der Decken		German explorer (1833-1865)
1865	Samuel Baker		British explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist
1866	William Chandless		Amazonian explorer, linguist
1867	Isaac Israel Hayes		United States explorer and physician (1832-1881)
1868	Gerhard Friedrich Rohlfs		German geographer, explorer, author and adventurer (1831-1896)
1869	Mary Somerville		science writer and polymath (1780-1872)
1870	Francis Garnier		French Navy officer (1839-1873)
1871	Alexander Keith Johnston		Scottish geographer
1872	Robert Barkley Shaw		English explorer
1873	Henry Morton Stanley		Welsh journalist and explorer (1841-1904)
1874	Peter Egerton-Warburton		British military officer, Commissioner of Police for South Australia and Australian explorer (1813–1889)
1875	Julius von Payer		Austrian mountain climber, painter, arctic explorer and nobleman (1841-1915)
1876	John Forrest		Australian explorer and politician (1847-1918)
1877	Nain Singh Rawat		Pundit who explored the Himalayas for the British
1878	Henry Trotter		explorer
1879	William John Gill		English explorer
1880	Ernest Giles		explorer (1835-1897)
1881	Benjamin Leigh Smith		British explorer and yacht racer (1828-1913)
1882	John Kirk		Scottish physician, naturalist, companion to David Livingstone and administrator in Zanzibar (1832-1922)
1883	Edward Colborne Baber		British orientalist
1884	Julius von Haast		German-born New Zealand geologist (1822-1887)
1885	Henry E. O'Neill		Royal Navy officer
1886	Guido Cora		Geographer and cartographer
1887	George Grenfell		Baptist missionary to Cameroon and explorer of Africa
1888	Hermann Wissmann		German explorer and administrator in Africa (1853–1905)
1889	Gustav Radde		German naturalist and explorer (1831-1903)
1890	Francis Younghusband		British army explorer
1891	Fridtjof Nansen		Norwegian polar explorer and diplomat; Nobel Peace Prize laureate (1861-1930)
1892	Edward Whymper		British mountaineer
1893	William Woodville Rockhill		American diplomat and Sinologist (1854–1914)
1894	Élisée Reclus		French geographer and writer
1895	George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston		British politician (1859-1925)
1896	St. George Littledale		English explorer
1897	George Mercer Dawson		Canadian scientist
1898	Robert Peary		explorer from the United States
1899	Fernand Foureau		French explorer
1900	James McCarthy		Irish surveyor	For great services to geographical science in exploring and mapping all parts of the kingdom of Siam
1901	Arthur Donaldson Smith		American explorer (1866-1939)
1902	Percy Sykes		British general, diplomat and scholar (1867–1945)
1903	Otto Sverdrup		Norwegian sailor and Arctic explorer (1854-1930)
1904	Robert Falcon Scott		Royal Navy officer and explorer
1905	Charles Henry Dudley Ryder		British surveyor in India
1906	Robert Bell		Canadian geologist
1907	Roald Amundsen		Norwegian explorer; first person to reach the South Pole
1908	Albert I, Prince of Monaco		Prince of Monaco (1848-1922)
1909	Milo Talbot		British army officer, surveyor and collector, 1854-1931
1910	William Speirs Bruce		Scottish marine biologist and antarctic explorer
1911	Jean-Baptiste Charcot		French scientist (1867-1936)
1912	Douglas Carruthers		British explorer and naturalist (1882-1962)
1913	Edward Adrian Wilson		English polar explorer (1872–1912)
1914	Alexander H. Rice, Jr.		American geologist
1915	Filippo De Filippi		Italian physician, scientist and explorer
1916	Frederick Marshman Bailey		British political officer in India (1882-1967)
1917	Cecil Rawling		British general, explorer and author
1918	Jean Auguste Marie Tilho		French explorer and military personnel (1875-1956)
1919	William Morris Davis		American geographer
1920	Jovan Cvijić		Serbian scientist
1921	Robert Bourgeois		French politician, military officer and geographer (1857-1945)
1922	Ernest de Koven Leffingwell		American geologist and explorer (1875-1971)
1923	Staniforth Smith		Australian politician, explorer & civil servant (1869-1934)
1924	Frank Wild		British Antarctica explorer (1873-1939)
1925	Sandy Wollaston		British explorer and biologist (1875-1930)
1926	Edgeworth David		Australian geologist
1927	Lauge Koch		Danish geologist (1892-1964)
1928	Hubert Wilkins		Australian polar explorer (1888-1958)
1929	Charles Karius		Australian explorer, magistrate & civil servant
1930	Carsten Borchgrevink		Anglo-Norwegian polar explorer
1931	Richard E. Byrd		American naval officer, explorer (1888-1957)
1932	Prince Aimone, 4th Duke of Aosta		Italian prince and navy officer (1900-1948)
1933	Erich von Drygalski		German geographer
1934	Ejnar Mikkelsen		Danish explorer and writer
1935	Willi Rickmer Rickmers		German explorer
1936	Robert Ernest Cheesman		British explorer
1937	Lincoln Ellsworth		American explorer
1938	Eric Shipton		British explorer
1939	Hans Wilhelmsson Ahlmann		Swedish glaciologist and diplomat (1889-1974)
1940	Sandy Glen		British explorer
1941	Isaiah Bowman		American geographer
1942	Owen Lattimore		American scholar of Central Asia (1900-1989)
1945	Halford Mackinder		English geographer, academic, and politician (1861-1947)
1946	Henry Larsen		Canadian explorer
1947	Daniël van der Meulen		Dutch diplomat, explorer and writer (1894-1989)
1948	Thomas Henry Manning		British-Canadian Arctic explorer
1949	Hans Pettersson		physicist
1950	Harald Sverdrup		Norwegian oceanographer (1888-1957)
1951	Donald Thomson		Australian anthropologist and ornithologist and Indigenous rights campaigner
1952	Paul-Émile Victor		French explorer
1953	Eigil Knuth		Danish explorer, archaeologist, sculptor and writer (1903-1996)
1954	Neil A. Mackintosh		marine biologist (1900-1974)	For research and exploration in the Southern Ocean
1955	James Simpson		British explorer (1911-2002)
1956	Charles Evans		British mountain climber
1957	George Binney		Royal Naval Reserve commander
1958	Edmund Hillary		New Zealand mountaineer and philanthropist (1919-2008)
1959	Raymond Priestley		English geologist, British Army officer and military historian
1960	Théodore Monod		French naturalist and explorer (1902-2000)
1961	John Bartholomew		British cartographer (1890-1962)
1962	Tom Harrisson		polymath
1963	Albert P. Crary		American geophysicist
1964	Thor Heyerdahl		Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer (1914-2002)
1965	Lester Charles King		British geologist
1966	Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith		British geologist (1923-2012)
1967	Eduard Imhof		Swiss cartographer and professor at ETH Zurich (1895-1986)
1968	Augusto Gansser-Biaggi		Swiss geologist (1910-2012)
1969	Edward Timothy Tozer		paleontologist (1928-2010)
1969	Raymond Thorsteinsson		Canadian geologist
1970	Haroun Tazieff		French volcanologist, geologist (1914-1998)
1971	Charles Swithinbank		British glaciologist
1972	Michael Douglas Gwynne		biologist and botanical collector (1932-2012)	Leader, the RGS’s South Turkana (Kenya] Expedition
1973	Edgar Hynes Thompson		photogrammetric surveyor (1910-1976)	Professor of photogrammetry and surveying, University College London
1974	Gordon de Quetteville Robin		glaciologist (1921-2004)	For polar research and exploration
1975	Joachim Kuettner		German-American scientist
1976	Edmund George Irving		Naval officer (1910-1990)
1977	Kenneth Hare		Canadian geographer and climatologist (1919-2002)
1978	Mieczysław Klimaszewski		Polish geographer (1908-1995)	For his contributions to geomorphology and international understanding in Geography
1979	Robin Hanbury-Tenison		English Explorer
1980	Preston E. James		American geographer
1981	Valter Schytt		Swedish glaciologist
1982	Douglas Ernest Warren		surveyor (1918-1993)
1983	John Young		American astronaut, naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer
1984	Pierre Gourou		French geographer
1985	Walter Smith		English land surveyor
1986	Peter Haggett		eminent British geographer and academic
1987	Richard Chorley		English geographer (1927-2002)
1988	Nigel Winser
1989	Keith Clayton		British geographer and environmental scientist
1990	Richard Leakey		Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician
1991	Helge Ingstad		Norwegian explorer
1991	Anne Stine Ingstad		Norwegian archaeologist (1918-1997)
1992	Martin Holdgate		British biologist
1993	John Blashford-Snell		British army officer and explorer
1994	Ghillean Prance		British botanist (1937-)
1995	David Harvey		British geographer and anthropologist
1996	John Barrie Thornes		geographer and geomorphologist
1997	David William Rhind		British geographer
1998	David Drewry		British scientist
1999	Doug Scott		British mountaineer (1941-2020)
2000	Crispin Tickell		British diplomat, environmentalist, and academic (1930–2022)
2001	Reinhold Messner		Italian mountaineer, adventurer and explorer
2002	David Keeble		British economic geographer
2003	Harish Kapadia		Indian mountain climber
2004	Sydney Possuelo		Brazilian explorer
2005	Jean Malaurie		French anthropologist and physicist
2006	Jack D. Ives		Canadian montologist
2007	Paul Curran		British geographer, President of City University London
2008	H. Jesse Walker		American geographer
2009	Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford		British economist and academic (born 1946)
2010	Jack Dangermond		American businessman
2011	Sylvia Earle		American oceanographer
2012	Alastair Fothergill		British producer
2013	Michael Palin		Britiish comedian, actor, writer and television presenter
2014	Hans Rosling		Swedish medical doctor, academic, statistician and public speaker
2015	Paul Theroux		American travel writer and novelist
2016	Bob Geldof		Irish singer-songwriter, author and political activist (born 1951)
2017	Lindsey Hilsum		British journalist
2018	Yadvinder Malhi		Professor of Ecosystem Science at the University of Oxford	For world leading studies on the impact of climate change on tropical ecosystems
2019	Fiona Reynolds		British civil servant and academic administrator	For her contribution to environmental protection, conservation and the preservation of the British landscape
2020	Michael T. Jones		American businessman and software developer (1960–2021)
2021	Rita Gardner		Chief Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences	For the widespread advancement of geography across all its sub-disciplines through her Directorship of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)
2022	Jane Francis		Director of the British Antarctic Survey	For her contributions to the earth and environmental sciences
2023	Felix Driver		Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London	For his contributions to historical geography and to the Society
2024	Stephen Venables		British mountaineer and writer	For his lifetime’s contribution to geographical discovery in the high mountains of the world