List of Légion d'honneur recipients by name (L)

The French government gives out the Legion of Honour awards, to both French[1] and foreign[2] 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[3]), 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.[3] 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.[4] The awards are traditionally published and promoted on 14 July.[5]

The following is a non-exhaustive list of recipients of the Legion of Honour awards, since the first ceremony in May 1803.[3] 2,550 individuals can be awarded the insignia every year.[5] The total number of awards is close to 1 million[6] (estimated at 900,000 in 2021,[5] including over 3,000 Grand Cross recipients[7]), with some 92,000 recipients alive today.[8] 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.[5]

Recipient Dates
(birth – death)
General work & reason for the recognition Award category (date)
Marcel L'Herbier
Eve Curie Labouisse Daughter of Marie Curie Officier
René Lacoste
Lars Levi Laestadius First Scandinavian to receive the Honor for his participation in the La Recherche Expedition of 1838–40.[9]
John LaFarge
Joseph-Clovis-Kemner Laflamme
Léo Richer Laflèche
Guillaume Joseph Nicolas de Lafon-Blaniac 1773 – 1833 French general of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars Grand Officier (1833)
Antonio Lago Italian entrepreneur who founded Talbot-Lago
Frank Purdy Lahm
Johan Laidoner
Charles Laking
Charles Lallemand
Yannick Lallemand 1937- Military chaplain,

Légion Étrangère

Grand Officier (2024)
Imants Lancmanis Latvian painter and art historian.
Gustave Lanctot
Bernard Landry
Clifton John Langeard
Claude Lanzmann
Edgard de Larminat
Jean-Marc de La Sablière
Ralph Lauren
Charles Laurent
T. E. Lawrence
Harold Lawton
Henrik Lax
Eusebio Leal
Jeff Leatham
Maurice Leblanc 1864 – 1941 French novelist ()
Félix Leclerc
Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
Ang Lee
Paul Legentilhomme
James Gordon Legge
Jacques Léglise French Golf Champion/President French Golf Federation
Jean-Marie Lehn
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
John A. Lejeune
Thomas Lemar World Cup winning footballer
Curtis LeMay
Lyman Lemnitzer
Janez Lenarčič Slovene diplomat
Charles-Amable Lenoir 1860 – 1926 French painter Knight
Aimé Lepercq
Eugène Lepoittevin
Henry Lerolle[10] 1848 – 1929 French painter Knight (1902)
Jean-François Le Sueur French Composer
Victor Levasseur
René Lévesque
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Émile Lévy 1826 – 1890 French painter
Edward Mann Lewis American World War I General
Henry Balding Lewis American World War II General
Jerry Lewis
William Leymergie
Sonja Licht Serbian sociologist and political activist
Hunter Liggett
Odd Lindbäck-Larsen Norwegian World War II military officer and concentration camp survivor.
Charles Lindbergh
Paavo Lipponen
Hugo Lloris World Cup winning footballer
Jack Lockett
John Bruce Lockhart Scotland, Great War
Sébastien Loeb World Rally Championship driver and 9-times World Champion.
William Edmond Logan
Leonard Lomell
Pierre Lorillard IV
Jim Lovell
Simon Fraser, 15th Lord Lovat
Cecil Lowther
Maurice Low WWII veteran RCAF, navigator in a Royal Air Force pathfinder squadron stationed in Britain.
Gerald Loxley Major RAF
Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas Captain of Redoubtable at the Battle of Trafalgar.
David Lynch

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Légion Code, article 16.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b c "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.
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d "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.
  6. ^ "Legion of Honour". Australian Government – Department of Veteran's Affairs. 31 January 2021. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  7. ^ Wattel, Michel; Wattel, Béatrice (2009). "Les Grand Croix de la Légion d'honneur. De 1805 à nos jours, titulaires français et étrangers". Archives & Culture.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ L. Laestadius, Fragments of Lappish Mythology. Translated by Vähämäki, Börje. Aspasia Books, Beaverton, Ont. Canada. 2002. p. 45.
  10. ^ Catalogue of the Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.).
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