The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. It comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of the order.
About Order of the British Empire in brief
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. It comprises five classes across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a knight if male or dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with, but not members of the order. Most members are citizens of the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth realms that use the Imperial system of honours and awards. The British monarch is Sovereign of the Order, and appoints all other members. The next most senior member is the Grand Master, of whom there have been three: Edward, Prince of Wales, Queen Mary and the Duke of Edinburgh. In 2004, a report titled \”A Matter of Honour: Reforming Our Honours System\” by a Commons committee recommended to phase out the Order. It was considered to be unacceptable, being thought to embody values that are no longer shared by many of the country’s population. The Order is limited to 300 Knights and Dames Grand Cross, 845 Knights and dames Commander, and 8,960 Commanders. There are no limits applied to the total number of members of fourth and fifth classes, but no more than 858 Officers and 1,464 Members may be appointed per year. Though men can be knighted separately from an order of chivalry, women cannot, so the rank of Knight or Dame Commander of theOrder is the lowest rank of damehood and second-lowest of knighthood.
For example, male judges of the High Court of Justice are appointed to a higher grade within time to time, while individuals appointed to higher grades within the Order are called Bachelor. For instance, a man would be created a Knight Bachelor by convention, but a woman would become a Dame Commander. The senior two ranks entitle their members to use the title of Sir for men and Dame for women before their forename. When the recipient is not a citizen of a country where the Queen is head of state, they receive an honorary knighthOOD. An example is Irish broadcaster Terry Wogan, who was appointed an honorary Knight Commander in 2005, and on successful application for British citizenship, held alongside his Irish citizenship, was made a substantive member and subsequently styled as SirTerry Wogan. In addition, the BEM is awarded by the Cook Islands and by some other Commonwealth nations. It stopped being awarded by Britain as part of the 1993 reforms to the honours system, but was again awarded beginning in 2012, starting with 293 BEMs awarded for Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. There are over 100,000 living members worldwide, with fewer to knighthhoods than in other Orders of Chivalry, but there are fewer living appointments in other orders.
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This page is based on the article Order of the British Empire published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 19, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
