Honorary membership may be conferred on persons in recognition of their eminence in promoting the aims of the Club.
A very important step was taken at one of the earliest meetings of the YRC, when it was decided to ask certain members of the Alpine Club and others of eminence to join as Honorary Members. Later this included prominent cavers and potholers. The valuable assistance given by these Honorary Members, their good counsel and practical encouragement greatly helped guide the Club through its early years and continues to the present day. The Club also confers Honorary Membership on certain YRC members in recognition of their substantial contribution to the Club over many years.
Past Honorary Members
1892 Edward Whymper
1892 Wm Cecil Slingsby
1892 Clinton Dent
1892 8th Duke of Devonshire
1892 Charles Matthews
1892 The Earl of Wharncliffe
1893 Charles Pilkington
1893 Charles Tetley
1893 Gerald Balfour MP
1893 Sir Martin Conway
1900 Horace Walker
1907 Sir Alfred Hopkinson
1907 Eduard Martel
1907 Geoffrey Winthrop Young
1909 Dr Norman Collie
1909 James Anson Farrer
1921 George Yeld
1921 George Lowe
1923 Charles Scriven
1925 Canon AD Tupper-Carey
1939 Sydney Farrer
1939 Walter Parsons
1946 Robert de Joly
1949 Ernest Roberts
1955 Sir Charles Evans
1956 Harry Spilsbury
1959 Fred Booth
1959 Davis Burrow
1965 Clifford Chubb
1965 Jack Hilton
1968 Cliff Downham
1968 Stanley Marsden
1968 Tim Watts
1977 Harry Stembridge
1985 David Cox
1988 Dr John Farrer
1990 David Smith
1997 George Spenceley
1997 Major Will Lacy TD
2001 Alan Brown
2008 Gordon Humphreys
2008 John Lovett
2010 Albert Chapman
Current Honorary Members
1997 Derek Bush
2003 Alan Linford
2008 Iain Gilmour
2008 Chewang Motop Goba
2012 Arthur Salmon
2014 Alan Hinkes OBE
2015 John Middleton
2016 Andy Eavis
2017 Michael Smith
2019 Maria Farrer
2019 Philip Farrer
2024 Tim Josephy
2024 Knut Tønsberg
2024 Nils Hagen