Adventure Magazine April 2020

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SIR RANULPH FIENNES
THE WORLD'S GREATEST LIVING EXPLORER
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"It is a truism to say that the dog is largely what
his master makes of him: he can be savage and
dangerous, untrustworthy, cringing and fearful;
or he can be faithful and loyal, courageous and
the best of companions and allies.”
Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Sir Ranulph Fiennes has spent
his life in pursuit of extreme adventure
in some of the most ambitious private
expeditions ever undertaken. His
achievements are lengthy and in
1984 the Guinness Book of Records
named him the “world’s greatest living
explorer.”
Sir Ranulph was due to be visiting
our shores to share his tales of epic
adventures and explorations, when
Coronovirus hit and the world as we
know it was put into a spin.
His talk, “An Evening with the
World’s Greatest Living Explorer Sir
Ranulph Fiennes” has since been
delayed and we will let you know as
soon as a new date is scheduled, but
it will be a treat for any adventurer
or simply anyone looking for a
motivational and entertaining night
out. So to whet your appetite here's
a bit about the man behind the
accolades.
It seems strange that the person
who Sir Ranulph wished to emulate
was a person he would never meet,
his father. Sir Ranulph was born in
England in 1944, at the end of the
war which claimed the life of his father
just four months before he was born.
However his mother kept his memory
alive with stories of his exploits as
an officer in the British army and that
became Ranulph’s goal, to follow in
his father’s footsteps.
“My father had been killed in the
war 4 months before I was born. I
was brought up with stories of his
endeavours and I was inspired by
him more than anything else… I
wanted to do what he did, I wanted
to become the commanding officer of
the regiment.”
Ranulph spent his early childhood
in South Africa, where his mother
had moved with the family to avoid
the bombing of WWII and they did
not return to England until he was
12 years old. Sir Ranulph, or Ran
to his friends, talks about his school
years with much humour, and also
to highlight where motivation can
develop. His lack of academic
success and the roadblocks he
experienced along the way, meant
he had to find other ways to achieve
his goal, which at the time was to
become an officer in the British army,
just like his father.
“In his days you didn’t need A
levels to get a commission. I was
not designed to get A levels. The
only thing I could do was get a short
service commission, 3 years as an
officer and a further 5 years. After
8 years you get chucked out as the
rules do not allow you to stay in any
longer.”
He served the first 5 years in the
British army, stationed in Germany
during the cold war, before applying
for the SAS. His stories about those
days in the SAS are fascinating
and funny, including the story of
being thrown out of the SAS for his
part in a “public spirited gesture” of
helping a friend blow up a bridge in
a protest against 20th Century Fox.
He explains how he came to have so
much explosives to do the job.
“I was at an explosive course
in Hereford at the time, and at the
end of each day I had quite a lot of
explosives left over. Rather than hand
it back I thought it would be nice to
keep it.”
Fortunately for Ran, this all
happened in 1967, before the rise of
the IRA. If it had been a year later he
would have likely served more than 7
years in jail.
But it was his stint in the army in
the Sultan of Oman in the late 60’s
early 70’s that his love of travelling to
remote places really developed. After
three years in Oman, Sir Ranulf left
the army and returned to England.
“The only thing I could do was to
do what I had been doing in the cold
war in Germany, teaching Scottish
soldiers to canoe and climb to stop
them getting bored, which they did
cause the Soviet army never bothered
to attack.”
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