Who Is Ranulph Fiennes? Inside the Career of Britain's 'Greatest Living Explorer'

Sir Ranulph Fiennes is a British explorer, former SAS officer and author who has spent more than five decades taking on some of the most extreme physical challenges on the planet, from a pole-to-pole crossing of the globe to an Everest summit at 65. Guinness World Records has listed him as “the world’s greatest living explorer” since 1984, a title that has stuck for over forty years. Here is a guide to who he is and how he built that reputation.

Who is Sir Ranulph Fiennes?

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, full name Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, is an English explorer, adventurer and author born on 7 March 1944 in Windsor. He served as an officer in the Royal Scots Greys and later the SAS before turning to full-time expeditions in the 1970s. Over the following five decades he built a career around polar crossings, desert exploration and endurance feats, alongside a parallel career as a bestselling author. He is a cousin of the actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, though his own fame rests on exploration rather than acting.

Why is he called “Sir” if he wasn’t knighted?

Fiennes is styled “Sir” because he holds a hereditary baronetcy, not because he received a personal knighthood for his expeditions. He was born the 3rd Baronet of the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes baronetcy, a title created in 1916, and inherited it at birth after his father — killed in action during the Second World War — held the title before him. A baronetcy is a hereditary honour rather than an order of knighthood, though it carries the same “Sir” style. Separately, he was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 1993, in recognition of his expeditions and charity fundraising, but that is a distinct honour from the baronetcy.

What did he do before he became an explorer?

Before his expedition career, Fiennes served as a soldier, including a stint with the SAS in the 1960s. He trained with the Royal Scots Greys and was seconded to 22 SAS, but his military career ended abruptly after he used demolition explosives to blow up a dam built for the 20th Century Fox film Doctor Dolittle at Castle Combe in Wiltshire in 1966, in protest at the film set disrupting the village. He was court-martialled, fined, and returned to his unit before leaving the army, an episode he has since described as a turning point that pushed him toward expedition life instead.

What is the Transglobe Expedition?

The Transglobe Expedition (1979–1982) was Fiennes’ best-known achievement: the first surface, unmechanised circumnavigation of the Earth along its polar axis. Travelling with expedition partner Charles Burton, and supported by his first wife and co-organiser Virginia “Ginny” Fiennes, the team crossed both the Arctic and Antarctic using surface transport rather than aircraft, completing a full loop of the globe over roughly three years. It remains one of the most cited feats behind his Guinness World Records title as the world’s “greatest living explorer,” a distinction first given to him in 1984.

What other expeditions is he known for?

Beyond the Transglobe Expedition, Fiennes has led or taken part in numerous polar, desert and endurance expeditions, several of which came at serious physical cost. In 1992 he helped locate the ruins of the “lost city” of Ubar in Oman using satellite imagery and old trade-route research. In 2000, a solo, unsupported attempt to reach the North Pole ended when his sledges fell through weak ice; frostbite in his left hand afterwards became so painful that he removed the tips of four fingers himself with a small saw rather than wait months for surgery. In 2003, months after a heart attack and double bypass surgery, he and expedition partner Dr Mike Stroud ran seven marathons in seven days across seven continents, finishing in New York.

When did he climb Mount Everest?

Fiennes reached the summit of Mount Everest in May 2009, at the age of 65, on his third attempt. The climb made him, at the time, the oldest Briton to have summited Everest, and the first person to have both climbed Everest and reached the North and South Poles. His Everest record for the oldest British summiteer has since been surpassed by an older claimant, but the underlying achievement — combining a polar career with a successful Everest summit relatively late in life — remains part of what defines his reputation.

What books has he written?

Fiennes is the author of more than 25 books, spanning expedition memoirs, biography and fiction. His output includes Captain Scott, a biography of the Antarctic explorer, and My Heroes, alongside numerous accounts of his own expeditions. His best-known work of fiction, The Feather Men (1991), was a bestseller that Fiennes described as based on real events involving former SAS colleagues; it was loosely adapted into the 2011 film Killer Elite, starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro.

How much has he raised for charity?

Fiennes has used many of his expeditions to raise money for UK charities, with a lifetime total well over £14 million. Marie Curie, which supports people with terminal illness, has been a longstanding beneficiary, including funds raised through his 2009 Everest climb and later challenges such as the Marathon des Sables. His fundraising work was cited alongside his expeditions when he received the OBE in 1993.

The bottom line

Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ reputation rests on more than four decades of expeditions that few others have attempted, let alone completed: a full polar circumnavigation of the globe, a solo polar crossing that cost him part of his hand, marathons run within months of heart surgery, and an Everest summit at an age when most climbers have long since stopped trying. Combined with a parallel career as a prolific author and charity fundraiser, it is a body of work that explains why Guinness World Records has kept his “greatest living explorer” title in place since 1984.