Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (born 7 June 1974) is an English adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series Man vs. Wild, known asBorn Survivor in the United Kingdom. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest everChief Scout at the age of 35.

Personal life

Grylls grew up in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland until the age of 4 when his family moved toBembridge on the Isle of Wight.^[6][7] He is the son of the late Conservative party politicianSir Michael Grylls and Lady Sarah Grylls.^[8] Lady Grylls was the daughter of Patricia Ford,^[9] briefly an Ulster Unionist Party MP, and cricketer and businessman Neville Ford. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, a cardio-tennis coach, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.^[10]

Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club,^[11] and Birkbeck, University of London,^[12] where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. From an early age, he learned to climb and sail from his father, who was a member of the prestigiousRoyal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second danblack belt in Shotokan karate. He practices yoga and ninjutsu. At age eight he became a Cub Scout.^[13] He speaks English, Spanish, and French.^[14] Grylls is a Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.^[15]

Although Grylls was christened 'Edward' he has legally changed his forename to 'Bear'.^[16] Grylls married Shara Grylls (née Cannings Knight) in 2000.^[3][9] They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke,^[17] and Huckleberry (born 15 January 2009 via natural childbirth on his houseboat).

Military service

After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army and hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim.^[18] Grylls joined theBritish Army and served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R) for 3 years until 1996.

In 1996, he suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia. His canopy ripped at 4,900 metres (16,000 ft), partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae. Grylls later said: "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem".^[19] According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralysed for life and at first it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. Grylls spent the next 12 months in and out of military rehabilitation at Headley Court^[19] before being discharged and directing his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfil his childhood dream of climbing Mount Everest.

In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve for services to charity and human endeavour.

Everest

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and entered the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest, just eighteen months after injuring his back. (James Allen, an Australian-British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, but who has dual citizenship, reached the summit at age 22.^[21][22] The feat has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and, at age 19, by Rob Gauntlett.)