British honours system

The honours system of the United Kingdom is a means of rewarding personal bravery, achievement or service to the country. The system is made up of three types of award: honours, decorations and medals.

Honorary awards

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 Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Terry Wogan and Rudolph Giuliani, while Arsène Wenger and Gérard Houllier are honorary OBEs. Recipients of honorary awards who later become subjects of Her Majesty may apply to convert their awards to substantive awards. An example of this is Yehudi Menuhin, the American-born violinist and conductor, who was granted an honorary knighthood while still an American citizen, and converted it to a substantive award after he assumed British citizenship. He was only then entitled to be known as Sir Yehudi Menuhin. He later accepted a life peerage as Lord Menuhin. Tony O'Reilly, who holds both British and Irish citizenship, uses the style "Sir", but has also gained approval from the Irish Government to accept the award as is necessary under the Irish Constitution.

Related Topics:
Head of state - Bill Gates - Bob Geldof - Terry Wogan - Rudolph Giuliani - Arsène Wenger - Gérard Houllier - Yehudi Menuhin - Tony O'Reilly - British - Irish - Citizenship - Irish Government - Irish Constitution

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There is no law in the UK preventing foreigners from holding a peerage, though only Commonwealth and Irish 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.

Related Topics:
United States - Canada - Canadian House of Commons - Nickle Resolution - Jean Chrétien - Conrad Black

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