Francis Chichester

Sir Francis Chichester was a British businessman, pioneering aviator and solo sailor, born in 1901 and died in 1972. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for becoming the first person to sail single-handed around the world by the clipper route, and for doing it faster than anyone before him: nine months and one day overall, across 1966 and 1967. His earlier fame came from flying, and his round-the-world voyage in his yacht Gipsy Moth IV. He sailed from Plymouth on 27 August 1966 and returned on 28 May 1967 after 226 days, with one stop in Sydney, and in July 1967 he was knighted at Greenwich.