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

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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)
James Waddell 1873[9] – 1954 Highly decorated New Zealand World War I. Recognised for: -
Knight: His bravery in leading his battalion in a costly attack against Turkish trenches on 21 June 1915 (Knight)
Officer: His actions during the Battle of the Somme where his personal example helped carry an attack on the village of Belloy-en-Santerre 		Knight (4 July 1915)[10][11]
Officer (10 June 1917)[12]
Commander (1920)
Youssef Wahba Pasha 1852 – 1934 Prime Minister of Egypt TBA[citation needed]
Mourad Wahba Pasha 1879 – 1972 Egyptian politician and high court judge TBA[citation needed]
Sadek Wahba Pasha 1966 – Present American economist and investor TBA[citation needed]
Magdi Wahba 1925 – 1991 Egyptian university professor TBA[citation needed]
Mark Wainberg 1900 – 1985[13][14] Leading Canadian AIDS Researcher. Recognised for his HIV/AIDS research Knight[15]
Nancy Wake 1912 – 2011 Resistance Commander in WW2, highly decorated allied servicewoman. Recognised for her wartime Service Knight (1970)
Officer (1988)[16]
Malvin E. Walker American Army Officer World War II TBA[citation needed]
Sean Walsh 79th Armoured Division (Royal Merchant Navy) Cork, Ireland and Canada. D Day December 1941 TBA[citation needed]
Herbert Ward 1863 – 1919 Sculptor and Red Cross officer during World War I. Officer (1911)[17]
Rose Warfman[18] 1916 – 2016 French survivor of Auschwitz and member of the French Resistance. Recognised for her work in the French Resistance. Knight (10 February 1959)
Officer (10 April 2009)
Oswald Watt[19][20] 1878 - 1921 Australian aviator and businessman. Recognised for crash-landing in no man's land and succeeded in making it back to French lines with valuable intelligence under intense fire from German positions. TBA[citation needed]
John Webber 1751[21] – 1793 Telegrapher in British Navy during D-Day Landings on Sword Beach awarded Medal TBA (27 May 2015)[citation needed]
Nicholas Fox Weber American cultural historian and foundation director TBA[citation needed]
Herman Armour Webster 1878 - 1970 American cultural historian and foundation director, artist and French windmill preservationist[22] Knight (1926)
Officer (1956)[23]
Ben Weider 1923 – 2008[24][25] Soldier, author, historian (Napoleonic history), fitness proponent, benefactor of the arts, and entrepreneur.[26] Recognised for his research into Napoleon's death.[24] Knight[27] (12 October 2000)[28]
Léon Weil 1896 – 2006 One of the last two surviving veterans of the battle of Val-de-Marne in the World War I
Arnold Weinstock 1924 – 2002 English industrialist and businessman (Formed the General Electric Company)
Pierre Weiss 1865 – 1940 French physicist specialized in magnetism (He developed the domain theory of ferromagnetism)
David Weisstub 1944–Present Philippe Pinel professor of legal psychiatry and biomedical ethics at the Université de Montréal
Wladyslaw Wejtko 1859 – 1933 Imperial Russian Army general of Polish descent (He fought on the side of the Second Polish Republic as a major-general in Józef Piłsudski's forces during the Polish-Soviet War)
Arsène Wenger 1949–Present Arsenal Football Club Manager (2002)
William Westmoreland 1914 – 2005 United States Army general (A commander of United States forces during the Vietnam War, subsequently serving as Chief of Staff of the United States Army).
Maxime Weygand 1867 – 1965 French military commander in World War I and World War II.
Joseph Weyland 1943–Present Luxemburg diplomat
Edith Wharton 1862 – 1937 American novelist, short story writer, and designer.
Earle Wheeler 1908 – 1975 United States Army general (who served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army and then as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, holding the latter position during the Vietnam War).
Belle Armstrong Whitney 1861 – 1922 American writer and "fashion expert", based in Paris. Knight[29]
Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski 1881 – 1942 Polish general, adjutant to Chief of State Józef Piłsudski, politician, freemason, diplomat, poet, artist and formally for one day the President of the Republic of Poland.
Elie Wiesel 1928 – 2016 Holocaust survivor and author and Nobel Laureate
Simon Wiesenthal 1908 – 2005 Jewish Austrian Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, and writer.
Harvey Ladew Williams, Jr. 1900 – 1986 International businessman
Arthur Knyvet Wilson 1842 – 1921 A Royal Navy officer (He served in the Anglo-Egyptian War and then the Mahdist War being awarded the Victoria Cross during the Battle of El Teb)
Henry Hughes Wilson 1864 – 1922 One of the most senior British Army staff officers of the World War I and was briefly an Irish unionist politician.
Ronald Wilson[30] Member of regiment of Royal Engineers TBA (2018)
Jean-Pierre Wimille 1908 – 1949 Grand Prix motor racing driver and a member of the French Resistance during World War II.
Edwin B. Winans (U.S. Army general) 1869 – 1947 United States Army officer who attained the rank of major general.
Wong Kar Wai 1958–Present Hong Kong film director.
Evelyn Wood (British Army officer) 1838 – 1919 British Army officer.
Klaus Wowereit 1953–Present German politician (Social Democratic Party,(SPD) / Governing Mayor of Berlin).
Orville Wright 1871 – 1948 One of the American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful motor-operated airplane.
Wilbur Wright 1867 – 1912 One of the American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful motor-operated airplane.
Katharine Wright 1874 – 1929 Younger sister of aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright, with whom she worked closely.
Severin Wunderman
Reinhold Würth 1935–Present German billionaire businessman and art collector.

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. ^ Leask, Anna (14 April 2015). "Gallipoli 100: Our Forgotten 'French' Hero". The New Zealand Herald. No. 46, 096. pp. A12f. Archived from the original on 20 July 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  10. ^ E. Coppin (1957). Victory Forever: "Waddell of Gallipoli" An Amazing True Story of the New Zealand Born Hero of the Foreign Legion. Levin: E. Coppin. Order No.73 of the Dardanelles Expeditionary Corps 4 July 1915
  11. ^ Windrow, Martin (23 August 2011). French Foreign Legionnaire 1890-1914. Osprey Publishing Ltd 2011. p. 35. ISBN 978-1-84908-422-2.
  12. ^ E. Coppin (1957). Victory Forever: "Waddell of Gallipoli" an amazing true story of the New Zealand Born Hero of the Foreign Legion. Levin: E. Coppin. Official Gazette 10 June 1917
  13. ^ Mark Wainberg; Papa Salif Sow; Susan Kippax; Marlène Bras; Kenneth H Mayer; Linda-Gail Bekker; Chris Beyrer (13 July 2017). "In memoriam: Mark Wainberg, PhD (1945–2017)". Journal of the International AIDS Society. 20 (1): 22206. doi:10.7448/IAS.20.1.22206. PMC 5577710. S2CID 27804885. Alt URL
  14. ^ Eric J. Arts (5 November 2017). "Dr. Mark A. Wainberg (1945–2017)". AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. 33 (5): iii–iv. doi:10.1089/aid.2017.29002.art. PMID 28475374.
  15. ^ (1980) "Canadian HIV expert named to France's highest order". CBC News. 21 August 2008. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  16. ^ Hadley, Kathryn (8 August 2011). "Death of Nancy 'White Mouse' Wake". History Today. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  17. ^ "Ward's Légion d'Honneur award certificate". 17 July 2021.
  18. ^ "Décret du 10 avril 2009 portant promotion et nomination". LégiFrance. 10 April 2009. Archived from the original on 17 July 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  19. ^ Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 41–42 Archived 10 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ "Colonel Watt: Drowned near Newport". Sydney Morning Herald. 23 May 1921. p. 8. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  21. ^ Hauptman, William (April 1994). "Webber before Cook: two water-colours after Sterne". The Burlington Magazine. 136 (1903): 237–241. JSTOR 886088.
  22. ^ The original invitation to become an officier of the Légion d'honneur as well as a photograph of the ceremony are in the Herman A. Webster Collection, Smithsonian Archives of American Art
  23. ^ Anderson, Reed (2004). American Etchers Abroad 1880-1939. Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas. p. 160. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  24. ^ a b Carlson, Michael (2 December 2008). "Ben Weider". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021.
  25. ^ "Ben Weider". Montreal Gazette. 19 October 2008. Archived from the original on 23 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  26. ^ Morelock, Jerry D. (20 October 2008). "In Memory of Ben Weider, 1923-2008". Armchair General. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021. Alt URL
  27. ^ Morelock, Jerry D. (20 October 2008). "In Memory of Ben Weider, 1923-2008". Armchair General. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Alt URL
  28. ^ "Bodybuilder Created an Empire". Montreal Gazette. 19 October 2008. Archived from the original on 22 October 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2021 – via Canada.com.
  29. ^ "Tribute to Belle Whitney". New York Times. 25 August 1922. p. 9. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 22 July 2021. Alt URL
  30. ^ "Nantwich war veteran, 95, awarded Legion d'honneur by France". Nantwich News. 23 December 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
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