Posted on 12/31/2005 5:53:18 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
This year's Queen's honours list in Britain includes the rescue workers who braved the devastation after the London bombings in July
But there were also awards for people involved in happier events.
The emergency services, medical staff and transport workers are all honoured today after the terrible bomb attacks of July 7.
Twenty-three awards in all for those who helped the injured, or coordinated the rescue operation.
In sport there is an OBE for the England cricket captain Michael Vaughan after the Ashes triumph. The rest of the team become MBEs.
There are knighthoods for the singer Tom Jones and jazz musician Johnny Dankworth, actors Robbie Coltrane and Imelda Staunton get OBEs.
Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood becomes a Dame and the chef Gordon Ramsey gets an OBE.
Sir Tom ?
Sir Tom it is! (Probably Sir Thomas, actually)
You should know that the Victoria Cross (and the George Cross) are both considered to be superior honours to any Knighthood.
Knighthoods are generally not awarded for single acts of bravery on the basis that most Orders are only permitted to have a limited number of living members - and if Knighthoods were handed out for acts of bravery, then in large wars (such as either World War) a situation could develop where soldiers who performed particular acts of bravery at the end of a war might not be able to be admitted to the same orders as those as performed similar acts early in the war, due a lack of places.
Just following up on this - another observation.
This is the New Years Honours List - which occurs every year, as one of two occasions when a large number of Honours are announced (the other is the Queen's Official Birthday).
While awards for servicemen and women can, and are, announced in the New Years Honours list, it is quite common for significant military awards to be announced at other times - Private John Beharry's Victoria Cross, for example, was gazetted on the 18th of March 2005. By announcing such awards in this way, it avoids them being 'lost in the crush' of other awards.
Also, it's quite common practice for a significant number of additional awards to be made at the end of a war to cover any people who were missed.
familyop,
A Knighthood is essentially a lifetime achievement award. As nauturalman1975 said, awards for valor, particularly the Victoria Cross and the George Cross take precedence over all other awards.
Naturalman1975
Only some orders of chivalry have membership limits, the Garter and the Thistle do. The orders of the Bath, St. Michael and St. George, and The British Empire do not. I'm not sure about the Royal Victorian Order.
Yes, I am aware that not all have limits on numbers of members, but the most significant ones certainly do - and, I think those are the ones that I would be handing out to war heroes if I was in charge :)
And, of course, there's also the Order of Merit and the Order of the Companions of Honour which do not confer a Knighthood, but which have limitations on membership.
Oh, and the Royal Victorian Order does not have any numerical limits.
I should have delayed and combined this all into one message.
The Order of the Bath does have numerical limits but Her Majesty is permitted to exceed them in special cases (and they are fairly high - 120 GCB, 355 KCB/DCB, 1925 CB).
And the Order of St Michael and St George does have limits - but they are fairly high - 125 GCMG, 375 KCMG/DCMG, 1750 CMGs.
Thank you very much for the information. I had no idea.
I stand corrected. It's been a while since I read up on British orders of chivalry.
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