LIST OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE DECLINED A BRITISH HONOUR

The following is a partial 'list of people who have declined a British honour', such as a knighthood or an honour usually within the Order of the British Empire. In most cases, the honour was rejected privately; others were rejected publicly, or accepted then returned later, as with John Lennon and Rabindranath Tagore (although the honour itself, once accepted, cannot be unilaterally renounced by its recipient).
Some potential recipients have rejected one honour then accepted another one (such as Sir Alfred Hitchcock), or have initially refused an honour then accepted it, or have accepted one honour then declined another (such as Vanessa Redgrave), or refused in the hopes of another - (Roald Dahl was offered an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, but refused because he wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl). This often has as much to do with the political party in power as anything else, since honours can be misconstrued as being political rewards.
Sometimes a potential recipient will refuse a knighthood or peerage, but will accept an honour, such as the Order of Merit (OM) or Companion of Honour (CH), that does not carry a title (Paul Scofield, Doris Lessing, Harold Pinter, David Hockney, Florence Nightingale and Augustus John are famous examples).
Many modern examples were identified in December 2003 when a confidential document containing over 300 names of such people was leaked to ''The Sunday Times''.

★ Derek Allhusen, Olympic equestrian gold-medallist in 1968 (declined MBE)

★ Peter Alliss, golfer and commentator (declined OBE in 2002)

★ Frank Auerbach, artist (declined a knighthood in 2003)

★ Charles Babbage, scientist

★ Francis Bacon, artist (declined Commander of the British Empire, or CBE, in 1960 and CH in 1977)

★ J. G. Ballard, author (declined CBE in 2003)

★ Nancy Banks-Smith, television critic (declined CBE in 1970)

★ Leonard Barden, British Chess Champion in 1954 (declined an MBE)

★ Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International (declined knighthood)

★ Alan Bennett, playwright (declined knighthood in 1996 and CBE in 1988)

★ Sir Isaiah Berlin, OM, philosopher (declined life peerage in 1980)

★ Honor Blackman, actress (declined CBE in 2002)

★ David Bowie, musician (declined CBE in 2000; declined knighthood in 2003)

★ Sir Francis Boyd, journalist (declined CBE in 1967; accepted knighthood in 1976)

★ Kenneth Branagh, actor and director (declined CBE in 1994)

★ Benjamin Britten, composer (declined knighthood; accepted CH, OM and life peerage)

★ Jim Broadbent, actor (declined OBE in 2002)

★ The Lady Callaghan of Cardiff, campaigner and fundraiser (declined DBE)

★ Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, statesman (declined dukedom in order to remain in House of Commons and to allow his son a political career)

★ John Cole, journalist (declined CBE in 1993)

★ Joseph Conrad, author (declined knighthood)

★ Joseph Corre, co-founder of Agent Provocateur (declined MBE in 2007^[1])

★ John Cleese, actor/comedian (declined CBE in 1996)

★ Hugh Cudlipp, OBE, editor (declined knighthood in 1966. Accepted Knighthood 1973 and a life peerage in 1974)

★ The Revd Hugh Bruce Cunningham, minister (declined knighthood in 1700s)

★ Roald Dahl, author (declined OBE in 1986)

★ Bernie Ecclestone, owner of Formula One commercial rights (declined CBE in 1996)

★ Michael Faraday, chemist and physicist (declined knighthood)

★ Albert Finney, actor (declined CBE in 1980 and knighthood in 2000)

★ Michael Frayn, dramatist (declined CBE in 1989 and knighthood in 2003)

★ Dawn French, comedienne (declined OBE along with Jennifer Saunders)

★ Lucian Freud, artist (declined CBE in 1977; accepted CH in 1983 and OM in 1993)

★ John Galsworthy, novelist (declined knighthood, accepted OM)

★ Robert Graves, poet and novelist (declined CBE in 1957 and CH in 1984)

★ Graham Greene, author (declined OBE in 1956; accepted CH in 1966 and OM in 1986)

★ Field-Marshal Lord Douglas Haig, WWI general (declined viscountcy, later accepted earldom)

★ Thomas Hardy, novelist/poet (declined knighthood; accepted OM)

★ Lenny Henry, comedian (declined OBE; accepted CBE)

★ Sir Wally Herbert, polar explorer (declined CBE, accepted knighthood)

★ Sir Alfred Hitchcock, director (declined CBE in 1962; accepted KBE in 1980)

★ David Hockney, artist (declined knighthood in 1990; accepted CH in 1997)

★ Charles Holden, architect

★ A.E. Housman, poet

★ Trevor Howard, actor (declined knighthood)

★ Aldous Huxley, author (declined knighthood in 1959)

★ Augustus John, artist (declined knighthood on a number of occasions, probably at the urging of his wife; accepted OM)

★ Anish Kapoor, artist

★ Rudyard Kipling, author and poet (declined knighthood)

★ Richard Lambert, editor of the ''Financial Times''

★ Philip Larkin, poet (declined OBE 1968 on grounds that he deserved a higher honour; accepted CBE 1975 and CH 1985; declined Laureateship 1984)

★ T. E. Lawrence, CB, DSO, World War I soldier, diplomat, and author, best known as ''Lawrence of Arabia'' (declined KCB)

★ Nigella Lawson, cookery writer (declined OBE)

★ John Le Carré, author (declined CBE)

★ Doris Lessing, author (declined OBE in 1977 and DBE in 1993; accepted CH in 2000)

★ C.S. Lewis, author, Oxford professor (declined knighthood to avoid association with any political issues)

★ Ken Loach, director (declined OBE)

★ L. S. Lowry, artist (declined OBE in 1955, CBE in 1961, knighthood in 1968, and CH in 1972 and 1976; holds the record for the most honours declined)

★ Geraldine McEwan, actress (declined OBE in 1986 and damehood in 2002)

★ Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum (declined knighthood in 1999)

★ Barry McGuigan, boxer (declined MBE in 1986; accepted MBE in 1994)

★ Alexander Mackenzie, second Prime Minister of Canada (declined knighthood as he thought it an affront to his Scottish heritage)

★ Dan McKenzie, earth scientist (declined knighthood; accepted CH in 2003)

★ Hank Marvin, guitarist (The Shadows) (declined OBE)

★ A. E. W. Mason, novelist, who declared that honours meant nothing to a childless man

★ George Melly, musician, artist and raconteur (declined CBE in 2001)

★ Dame Helen Mirren, actress (declined CBE in 1996; accepted DBE in 2003)

★ William Martin Murphy, industrialist, MP (declined knighthood in 1906)

★ Sir V. S. Naipaul, author (declined CBE in 1977; accepted knighthood in 1990)

★ Harold Pinter, playwright (declined knighthood; accepted CH)

★ Anthony Powell, writer (declined knighthood; accepted CH)

★ J. B. Priestley, OM, playwright

★ Vanessa Redgrave, CBE, actress (declined DBE in 1999)

★ Richard Redgrave, artist (declined knighthood in 1869)

★ Keith Richards, guitarist (The Rolling Stones) (declined CBE)

★ Francisco Javier Sánchez Broto, footballer and philanthropist (declined honorary knighthood)

★ John Singer Sargent, US painter (declined an honorary knighthood)

★ Jennifer Saunders, comedienne (declined OBE along with Dawn French)

★ Paul Scofield, CH, CBE, actor (declined knighthood on several occasions)

★ Alastair Sim, CBE, actor (declined a knighthood)

★ Robert Simpson, composer (declined CBE)

★ Savenaca Siwatibau, Fijian academic (declined CBE)

★ Joan Smith, journalist (declined MBE)

★ Jon Snow, newscaster (declined OBE, then investigated and presented a Channel 4 documentary '' Secrets of the Honours System'' [1])

★ Claire Tomalin, journalist and biographer

★ Polly Toynbee, columnist (declined CBE in 2000)

★ Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer (declined knighthood; accepted OM)

★ Evelyn Waugh, novelist (declined CBE in 1959)

★ Paul Weller, musician (declined CBE in 2007)

★ Rachel Whiteread, artist (declined MBE in 1997; accepted CBE in 2006)

★ Grace Williams, composer (declined OBE)

★ Michael Winner, director (declined OBE in 2006)

★ Pearl Witherington, Special Operations Executive agent (declined later compensating award of MBE when men who had performed the same heroic acts in same wartime Resistance roles were being awarded MC (Military Cross) at the time. Her recommendation had been turned down simply because of her sex, not lack of gallantry. The first female MC was Michelle Norris in 2006.)

★ Bill Woodfull, cricketer (declined knighthood in 1934 for services to cricket; accepted OBE in 1963 for services to education)

★ W.B. Yeats, Anglo-Irish poet (declined knighthood in 1915, seven years before becoming a Senator of the newly-formed Irish Free State)

★ Benjamin Zephaniah, poet (declined OBE)

★ Craig Murray, former United Kingdom Ambassador to Uzbekistan (declined LVO, OBE and CVO)
Additionally, according to the text of ''The Adventure of the Three Garridebs'', fictional detective Sherlock Holmes was offered a knighthood and refused it.

Contents

People who have returned an honour

Declining a baronetcy

References

People who have returned an honour

As no official provision exists for renouncing an honour, any such act is always unofficial, and the record of the award in ''The London Gazette'' stands. However the physical badge can be returned to the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. Any recipient can also request that the honour not be used officially, e.g. Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, was knighted in 1997 but has not used the title since the handover to China. Another example is the actor Sidney Poitier who was awarded a KBE in 1974 but has never used the title professionally (although the government of the Bahamas has used it on his behalf).
Recipients who have returned insignia include:

★ Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, journalist (returned MBE in 2003)

★ Roy Bailey, folk singer (returned his MBE in August 2006 in protest at the UK government's foreign policy in Lebanon and Palestine)

★ John Lennon, musician (returned MBE in 1969 "in protest against Britain's involvement in the Biafra thing, its support of America in Vietnam, and "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts.")

★ Maharajkumar of Vizianagram, cricketer (knighted in 1936; returned knighthood in 1947 on India's independence)

★ Rabindranath Tagore, author and poet (knighted in 1915; returned knighthood in 1919 to protest the Amritsar massacre)

★ Susan Wighton, aid worker (returned MBE in 2006 in protest at the UK government's foreign policy in the Middle East)

Declining a baronetcy

When a baronetcy becomes vacant on the death of a holder, the heir may choose not to register the proofs of succession, effectively declining the honour. The Official Roll of Baronets is kept at the Home Office by the Registrar of the Baronetage. Anyone who considers that he is entitled to be entered on the Roll may petition the Crown through the Home Secretary. Anyone succeeding to a baronetcy therefore must exhibit proofs of succession to the Home Secretary. A person who is not entered on the Roll will not be addressed or mentioned as a baronet or accorded precedence as a baronet. The baronetcy can be revived at any time on provision of acceptable proofs of succession, by, say, the son of a son who has declined to register the proofs of succession ^[2].
About 83 baronetcies are currently listed as awaiting proofs of succession. Notable "refuseniks" include Jonathon Porritt, lately of Friends of the Earth; Ferdinand Mount, the journalist; and Francis Dashwood, Premier Baronet of Great Britain, whose title was created in 1707.
Tam Dalyell, the left-wing former Labour MP and Father of the House of Commons, did provide proofs of succession to take his Scottish baronetcy, created in 1683, although he never uses his title.

References

1. Lingerie firm founder rejects MBE, BBC News, June 20 2007.
2. ''Whitaker's Almanac'', 2005, p 83 et seq.