The knights of the Garter are chosen personally by the Sovereign to honour those who have held public office, who have contributed in a particular way to national life or who have served the Sovereign personally.
There is a discrete number appointed as "People's Peers", on recommendation of the general public. Various orders of knighthood have been created (see below) as well as awards for military service, bravery, merit, and achievement which take the form of decorations or medals. This has yet to be tested under the new arrangements.
Recommendations are made to the monarch of the United Kingdom, who has the sole authority to rescind an honour. Decorations are followed by medals of various categories, being arranged in date order within each section. The Times published an analysis of the recipients of honours in December 2015 which showed that 46% of those getting knighthoods and above in 2015 had been to fee-paying public schools.
These orders, relating to the British Raj or the British Indian Empire, are also dormant. A peerage can be revoked only by a specific Act of Parliament, and then for only the current holder, in the case of hereditary peerages. Military officers for leadership while on active service. In 2007, it passed a National Honours Act which established a Bahamian honours system; however, it had not come into effect as of 2015.[29][30].
A baronetess is styled Dame Jane Smith, Btss. The Order now consists of the Sovereign, the Grand Master (currently The Duke of Kent) and includes three classes which were all created with the Order in 1818. Each year, around 2,600 people receive their awards personally from The Queen or a member of the Royal Family. An investigation by the Crown Prosecution Service did not lead to any charges being made. Cancellation is considered in cases where retention of the appointment or award would bring the honours system into disrepute. As a life peerage is not technically an "honour under the Crown", it cannot normally be withdrawn once granted. It was the first time MPs voted to recommend rescinding a knighthood.[42]. After the Irish Free State's secession in 1922, only members of the royal family were appointed to the order, the last in 1936. In July 2012, Conservative MP Oliver Colvile introduced a private member's bill, titled "Honours (Equality of Titles for Partners) Bill", to amend the honours system to both allow husbands of those made dames and for civil partners of recipients to receive honours by their relationship statuses.[48].
Appointments to the Order are the Sovereigns personal gift and ministerial advice is not required. The Sovereign makes all appointments to the Order on the advice of the Government. [33] Examples of this are Marjorie Scardino, American CEO of Pearson PLC, and Yehudi Menuhin, the American-born violinist and conductor. All hereditary peers retain dining rights to the House of Lords, retaining its title as "the best club in London". Knighthood carries the title sir; the female equivalent dame exists only within the orders of chivalryDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) is usually awarded as an equivalent of a Knight Bachelor. These are followed by Commonwealth and honorary foreign awards of any level. Although the Anglo-Saxon monarchs are known to have rewarded their loyal subjects with rings and other symbols of favour, it was the Normans who introduced knighthoods as part of their feudal government. The Official Roll of Baronets is kept at the Ministry of Justice (transferred from the Home Office in 2001) by the Registrar of the Baronetage. The Society maintains the Chapel of Knights Bachelor in St Pauls Cathedral where it holds its Annual Service of Dedication. Only 6.55% of the population attends such schools. [28] Also in 1975, New Zealand instituted its first indigenous honour, the Queen's Service Order, followed by the Order of New Zealand in 1987. [23] Baronetcies are not peerages.
Irish-born Sir Terry Wogan was initially awarded an honorary knighthood, but by the time he collected the accolade from the Queen in December 2005, he had obtained dual nationality[note 1] and the award was upgraded to a substantive knighthood.
The Knights and Dames Grand Cross display their banners of arms in the Chapel of the Order in St Pauls. [51] At the same time, 87.1% of the United Kingdom is composed of white people,[citation needed] according to the 2011 census. Occasionally an award for gallantry may be made posthumously and in this case the Queen presents the decoration or medal to the recipient's next-of-kin in private before the public investiture begins.
There is no law in the UK preventing foreigners from holding a peerage (e.g., Newburgh), though only Commonwealth and Irish citizens may sit in the House of Lords. ", "Tory MP's bill calls for partners of gay knights to receive honorary titles", "Honours list dominated by public school elite", "Gender & Racial Diversity & the Queen's Honours Process", Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, Queen's Police Medal, for Gallantry (QPM), Queen's Fire Service Medal, for Gallantry (QFSM), Queen's Police Medal, for Distinguished Service (QPM), Queen's Fire Service Medal, for Distinguished Service (QFSM), Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service (MNM), Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air, Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service, Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (Flying) (CGM), Union of South Africa King's Medal for Bravery, Gold, Royal West African Frontier Force Distinguished Conduct Medal, King's African Rifles Distinguished Conduct Medal, Indian Distinguished Service Medal (IDSM), Union of South Africa King's Medal for Bravery, Silver, Kaisar-i-Hind Medal (Gold, Silver, Bronze), Sierra Leone Fire Brigades Medal, for Gallantry, Mauritius Police Medal for Meritorious Service, Colonial Police Medal, for Gallantry (CPM), Indian Police Medal, for Meritorious Service, Sierra Leone Police Medal, for Meritorious Service, Sierra Leone Fire Brigades Medal, for Meritorious Service, Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air, 1969 (Investiture of The Prince of Wales), 2002 (Death of The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orders,_decorations,_and_medals_of_the_United_Kingdom&oldid=1100457221, Pages containing London Gazette template with parameter supp set to y, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. The Dames and Knights Grand Cross are allotted stalls in Westminster Abbey where the Orders chapel is. Indian citizens in the armed forces and police. The appointment of Knight Bachelor (to men only) originates from the medieval period.
During the ceremony, the Queen enters the ballroom of Buckingham Palace attended by two Gurkha orderly officers, a tradition begun in 1876 by Queen Victoria. Within the Commonwealth realms, however, the nature of the British honour or decoration awarded and the permissibility of its conferment varies from government to government. This could be, for example, senior diplomats for exceptional service, outstanding contributions to major International Organisations and the Sovereigns Representatives in Commonwealth Realms. The senior order, the Order of the Star of India, was divided into three grades, Knight Grand Commander, Knight Commander and Companion, of which the first and highest was conferred upon the Princes and Chiefs of Indian states and upon important British civil servants working in India. [24] A person who is not entered on the roll will not be addressed or mentioned as a baronet or accorded precedence as a baronet, effectively declining the honour. The lack of racial diversity continues to attract criticism, with 89.6% of all award recipients identified as white,[50] and only 3.2% of higher award winners (inc Knighthood and Damehoods) identifying as BAME in 2019. A dame is styled Dame Jane Smith, [postnominals]. ", British, (formerly) Commonwealth, and allied forces on land for "gallantry during active operations against the enemy. For those of equal rank, members of the higher-ranked Order take precedence. All Life Peers hold the rank of baron and automatically have the right to sit in the House of Lords. This might take the form of sustained commitment in support of very local charitable and/or voluntary activity; or innovative work that has delivered real impact but that is relatively short (three to four years) in duration. Sometimes the original decision to grant an honour was made on the basis of inaccurate information (including through manipulation of the public nominations system), but normally cases relate to actions that took place after the award was made. During the personal union of the United Kingdom and Hanover it originally had three classes, but with several reorganizations since 1841 as house order today it has four classes and an additional Cross of Merit. Orders formerly associated with the British monarch, British honours in the Commonwealth realms, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Maharaja Tej Singh Prabhakar Bahadur of Alwar, Maharaja Meghrajji III of Dhrangadhra-Halvad, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, List of honorary British knights and dames, List of people who have declined a British honour, List of revocations of appointments to orders and awarded decorations and medals of the United Kingdom, 1993 reviews of the British honours system, 1976 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, Military awards and decorations of the United Kingdom, Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom, Orders, decorations, and medals of Australia, Orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, Orders, decorations, and medals of New Zealand, Orders, decorations, and medals of Hong Kong, "Honours committees: Directgov - Government, citizens and rights", "Social stress, UK honours system and others", "Do you agree with this year's honours list? Most medals are not graded. Relating to Scotland. Orders were created for particular reasons at particular times.
Diplomats and colonial service. For honours bestowed upon those in the entertainment industry (e.g., Anthony Hopkins, Maggie Smith), it is an accepted practice to omit the title for professional credits.[46]. Their wives are styled Lady Smith, with no postnominal letters. Citizens of countries that do not have the Queen as their head of state sometimes have honours conferred upon them, in which case the awards are "honorary". All awards bestowed as part of the Order are given at the discretion of the Sovereign and not on the advice of the Prime Minister. Its members, all sharing a single grade, consisted of 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. [8] The honour's insignias are then presented by the Sovereign or her designated representative. In 1955 it was 50%. Menuhin later accepted a life peerage with the title Lord Menuhin. The Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor founded in 1908 acts as the Registry for Knights Bachelor. Appointments are made at the Sovereign's sole discretion. In the case of knighthoods, the holders are entitled to place initials after their name but not style themselves "Sir" as they are not entitled to receive the accolade.
The honours system consists of three types of award: Appointments to the various orders and awards of other honours are usually published in The London Gazette. The PASC recommended some radical changes; Sir Hayden concentrated on issues of procedure and transparency. In 2020, the Guardian reported based on a Freedom of Information request, that the number of people refusing an honour had more than doubled in the previous nine years. Until the mid-20th century, peerages were usually hereditary, and, until the end of the 20th century, English, Scottish, British, and UK peerages (except, until very recent times, those for the time being held by women) carried the right to a seat in the House of Lords. The order continued for some time as a national order of Hanover until the defeat and forced dissolution of the kingdom by Prussia in 1866.
The order's current head is Ernst August Prinz von Hanover, head of the house of Hanover. More familiar references or oral addresses use the first name only, e.g. A Baronetcy is, in the order of precedence, below a Barony but above most knighthoods.