What Have Betty Boothroyd, David Attenborough, Lord Foster and Tim Berners-Lee In Common?
They are all members of the Order of Merit, which is the only British honour that is a personal gift of the Sovereign. It is limited to 24 members and with the deaths of Lucien Freud and Joan Sutherland, there are now only twenty two full members and one honorary one; Nelson Mandela.
From inception in 1902, the honour has always been open to women and originally was awarded as a means to acknowledge “exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army, or who may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service towards the advancement of Art, Literature and Science”.
Looking at the current list, there are no military figures, two women, an archbishop, three politicians, of whom one is a Canadian, a playright, several Nobel prize winners, a sculptor, a broadcaster; David Attenborough, several scientists and mathemeticians and a couple of philanthropists. Perming any six from twenty-two would make one hell of a dinner party.
So the Queen has a problem!
She has to fill the two vacancies and she will do this without political interference.
There is only one from the theatre;Tom Stoppard, so such as Alan Bennett, Judi Dench and Ian McKellen must be in the frame. Alan Bennett has already refused a knighthood, so he may not accept. On the other hand, it might have been Benjamin Britten, who initially refused, but accepted when he was told that the honour was the personal gift of the sovereign.
There is no doctor, so perhaps Lord Winston or someone of equal stature should be added. I have one doctor in mind, as he helped me greatly when C died, but I won’t name him here.
There are also no sportsmen or sportswomen on the list and if you look at past holders none came from sport. But then when the order was founded sport was an irrelevance to most people, except for gambling and entertainment. So should this ommission be rectified? In my view the only possible person might have been Chris Brasher, but he died a few years ago. Ian Botham will be another possible in a decade or so, as he is too young at present.
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