Explorer's warning to bullies

'I Know Who You Are', Fiennes warns aggressors

He has scaled Everest, cut off his own frost-bitten fingers and, following heart bypass surgery, completed seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. But Sir Ranulph Fiennes maintains that the hardships he suffered at the hands of school bullies remain the most challenging of his life.

The adventurer, explorer and mountaineer expressed this week of the daily turmoil he faced by his peers during his time at the infamous public school, Eton.

A Polar Medal winner, Fiennes explained that he was bullied at school for his ‘pretty boy image’ and that prefects in his own house had beaten him along with other boys who frequently abused him verbally.

"Aged 13, I seriously considered suicide," the explorer told BBC Radio 4. "The very thought of escape from the stares, the sneers and the sniggers was a help. I would lie tearful in bed planning the death notes denouncing the worst culprits ... My self-confidence ... had reached an all-time low and I was never again comfortable in static social situations where people sit and banter."

In an attempt to toughen up his image Fiennes recalled that he took up boxing to stave off the bullies. When asked if he ever sought revenge on his tormentors, Fiennes responded?: "I never did do, no. You know the stories you read about people who get their own back 60 years later, so there's still a chance ... I know who they are."

Whilst refusing to name and shame his attackers, the explorer has had the last laugh. Fiennes not only possesses the Sultan's Bravery Medal and a Knighthood alongside his Polar Medal: he was deemed the ‘worlds greatest living adventurer’ by the Guinness Book of Records.