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The recipients are chosen by the Sovereign, who is the 'fountain of honour', acting upon the advice of the Prime Minister. Private nominations are also made to the Prime Minister's Office and foreign nationals are recommended by the Foreign Secretary. Commonwealth governments are also entitled to recommend their citizens for British orders, though most have established their own honours systems. Certain honours are awarded at the personal discretion of the monarch.
Honours are usually conferred twice a year - on the Sovereign's official birthday and at the New Year. There is usually an elaborate ceremony for bestowing honours, the most famous of which is the well-known "knighting" ceremony, in which the sovereign taps the recipient on the shoulder with a ceremonial sword.
Honours are sometimes refused or returned; see list of people who have declined a British honour.
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2 Orders of Chivalry 3 Other orders 4 Honorary Awards 5 Precedence 6 See also |
The Orders of Chivalry, ranked by precedence, are as follows:
Two Orders are comprised of three grades, Knight/Dame Grand Cross, Knight/Dame Commander, and Companion (the last rank is not Knightly). The Order of the Bath is normally composed of military personnel and civil servants. The Order of St Michael and St George includes distinguished foreign, Commonwealth and colonial service personnel.
Two other Orders are comprised of five grades, Knight/Dame Grand Cross, Knight/Dame Commander, Commander, Officer (or Lieutenant) and Member. Only the first two grades are knightly. The Royal Victorian Order is granted for personal service to the Sovereign. The Order of the British Empire, which is divided into military and civil divisions, the most widely awarded order.
Certain Orders related to the Indian Empire are also defunct. The Order of the Star of India was the senior order, divided into three grades - Knight Grand Commander, Knight Commander and Companion. (There were no Dames or female Companions in the Order.) The highest rank was conferred upon the Princes and Chiefs of Indian states and upon important British civil servants in India. The junior order, the Order of the Indian Empire, was divided into the same ranks and also excluded women. There was a third order, the Order of the Crown of India, that was open exclusively to ladies. The members, all of the same grade, included the wives and close female relatives of Indian Princes or Chiefs, the Viceroy or Governor-General, the Governors of Bombay, Madras and Bengal, the Principal Secretary of State for India and the Commander-in-Chief in India. Appointments to all of these orders ceased upon Indian independence in 1947.
There is, furthermore, a semi-official Order, the Order of St John of Jerusalem. Its members can wear the Order's insignia, but do not receive any titles of Knighthood or use any post-nominal letters.
One group of Knights, the Knights Bachelor, belong to no particular order and use no post-nominals, though they are entitled to the appellation of "Sir". There are no Dames Bachelor.
Citizens of countries which do not recognise the Queen as head of state sometimes have honours conferred upon them, in which case the awards are "honorary" - the holders are entitled to place initials behind their name but not style themselves "Sir ...". Examples of foreigners with honorary knighthoods are Bob Geldof and Rudolph Giuliani, while Arsène Wenger and Gerard Houllier are honorary OBEs. Recipients of honorary awards who later become subjects of Her Majesty may apply to convert their awards to substantive awards.
There is no law in the UK preventing foreigners from holding a peerage, though only Commonwealth citizens can sit in the House of Lords. However, some other states such as the United States have laws restricting the acceptances of awards by foreign powers; and in Canada, where the Canadian House of Commons has opposed the granting of titular honours with its Nickle Resolution, the prime minister Jean Chrétien was able to advise the Queen not to grant Conrad Black a titular honour while he remained a Canadian citizen.Honours conferred
Orders of Chivalry
Each of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom (except Wales) is associated with a particular order, these national orders ranking above all others. The highest English honour is the Order of the Garter; the Scottish one the Order of the Thistle. The Irish order, the Order of St Patrick, is now defunct. Each of the Orders includes a single class of members, who are called Knights Companion or Ladies Companion. The Order of the Garter is limited to twenty-four Knights and Ladies, that of the Thistle to sixteen, and that of St Patrick to twenty-two.Other orders
Two orders in the system do not include knightly grades, and carry no title or precedence. The Order of Merit is given to people who show exceptional distinction and is limited to twenty-four Companions. The Order of the Companions of Honour, which is limited to sixty-five Companions, is a "junior" version of the Order of Merit. The membership of the Order of Merit is entirely at the discretion of the Sovereign, while the Prime Minister has the power to select Companions of Honour.Honorary Awards