NEWS | UNITED KINGDOM
Celebrities Who Turned Down The Queen's Honours
Many have turned down Knighthood and Orders of the British Empire, and we have a full list of all the celebrities who weren't keen to accept the honour bestowed on them
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Synopsis
Twice a year, the UK publishes its honours list recognizing those who have accomplished excellence in a spectrum of pursuits, including both celebrities and non-famous faces. Although knights and dames may be the most well-known commendations, there's a hierarchy of ranks in the honours system, according to the UK government.
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At the highest level is the Companion of Honour, awarded to those who've made major contributions in the arts, science, medicine, or government over an extended period. Next, the distinction of being a knight or dame is conferred on those who've made long-term national contributions seen as inspirational or significant.
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The Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, is for those who've played a “prominent but lesser role at the national level, or a leading role at the regional level,” according to the UK government.
David Bowie rejected the CBE in 2000, and a knighthood in 2003, stating that these honours were not something he spent his life “working for.”
Twice a year, the UK publishes its honours list recognizing those who have accomplished excellence in a spectrum of pursuits, including both celebrities and non-famous faces. Although knights and dames may be the most well-known commendations, there's a hierarchy of ranks in the honours system, according to the UK government.
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At the highest level is the Companion of Honour, awarded to those who've made major contributions in the arts, science, medicine, or government over an extended period. Next, the distinction of being a knight or dame is conferred on those who've made long-term national contributions seen as inspirational or significant.
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The Commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE, is for those who've played a “prominent but lesser role at the national level, or a leading role at the regional level,” according to the UK government.
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The Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, is for those who've taken a major role in local activities, and through that become known nationally in their chosen area. The Member of the Order of the British Empire, or MBE, is for outstanding achievement or service to one's community. Finally, the British Empire Medal, or BEM, is for those who've done "hands-on" service for their local community, including voluntary activity or innovation work.
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However, not everyone is keen to accept the honour that has been bestowed on them, either at New Year's or for the Queen's birthday. Here’s a list…
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Alan Bennett turned down the offer of becoming a CBE in 1988 and then rejected a knighthood in 1996. The playwright and author said that he did not believe that he could carry off being a knight. In his words – “I felt that, in my case, it just wouldn’t suit me, that’s all. It would be like wearing a suit every day of your life.”
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Actor Albert Finney – a star of the 1960s who played Kincade in the Bond film, Skyfall – turned down a CBE in 1980 and rejected a knighthood in 2000.
“I think the Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of our diseases in England, which is snobbery,” he is reported to have said at the time. Finney died in February 2019, aged 82.
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Aldous Huxley was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times. The Brave New World author refused a knighthood in 1959.
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The poet revealed he received an invitation from the Prime Minister's office to receive the title of OBE, but rejected it, writing: “I am profoundly anti-empire.”
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Writing in the Guardian at the time, Benjamin Zephaniah explained why he refused to be appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He wrote: “Me? I thought: ‘OBE – me?’ Up yours, I thought.
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“I get angry when I hear that word ‘empire’; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.” He added: “I am not one of those who are obsessed with their roots, and I’m certainly not suffering from a crisis of identity; my obsession is about the future and the political rights of all people.
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“Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way, Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen. I am profoundly anti-empire.”
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The creator of the Chronicles of Narnia series of books declined a CBE in 1952. CS Lewis reportedly rejected the honour to avoid association with any political issues.
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The director and master filmmaker was lauded for his work behind the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony revealed he turned down a knighthood because… “It’s just not me.” He said that it did not feel right to accept the award when thousands of people were involved in the planning and execution of the highly-praised opening ceremony.
He told the Radio Times – “You can make these speeches about ‘this is everybody's work, blah blah blah.’ And you've got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it's the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people. I don't know whether I'll ever get invited back to the Palace.”
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Musician David Bowie turned down a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 and a knighthood in 2003. "I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don't know what it's for. It's not what I spent my life working for," Bowie said.
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Comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders declined to be made OBEs “for services to comedy drama” in 2001. Saunders later revealed why they turned down the honour offered to them.
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“If I felt I deserved a Damehood, I’d accept it,” she told Source magazine. “At the time, we felt that we were being paid very well to have a lot of fun. It didn’t seem right somehow. We didn’t deserve a pat on the back. It felt a bit fake to stand alongside people who devoted their lives to truly worthy causes.”
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In 2000, the former Beatle turned down an OBE after his bandmate Paul McCartney was awarded a knighthood. Documents reveal that the Beatles guitarist was put forward for the honour due to his contribution to the music industry.
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But journalist Ray Connolly, who knew The Beatles, said Harrison would have been insulted at such an offer after McCartney received a knighthood three years previously. “Whoever it was who decided to offer him the OBE and not the knighthood was extraordinarily insensitive,” he said. “George would have felt insulted – and with very good reason.” Every member of the Beatles was awarded an MBE in 1965, but John Lennon returned his, mostly as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the civil war fought between the government of Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra
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Liverpool FC’s first black player turned down an MBE in 2016 saying that his “ancestors would be turning in their graves after how Empire and colonialism had enslaved them.” Howard Gayle was nominated for the title for his campaign work with Show Racism the Red Card.
He wrote in a post on his Facebook page – “This is a decision that I have had to make and there will be others who may feel different and would enjoy the attraction of being a Member of the British Empire and those three letters after their name, but I feel that It would be a betrayal to all of the Africans who have lost their lives, or who have suffered as a result of empire.”
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The Opportunity Knocks presenter snubbed an OBE in 1960, at a time when he was reaching new heights in his entertainment career as the host of Double Your Money.
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Novelist James Graham ‘JG’ Ballard turned down a CBE, which he was put forward for to recognise his services to literature, saying that the award “goes with the whole system of hereditary privilege and rank, which should be swept away.”
He told the Guardian in 2003 – “As a republican, I can't accept an honour awarded by the monarch. There's all that bowing and scraping and mummery at the palace. It's the whole climate of deference to the monarch and everything else it represents. They just seem to perpetuate the image of Britain as too much pomp and not enough circumstance. It's a huge pantomime where tinsel takes the place of substance. A lot of these medals are orders of the British Empire, which is a bit ludicrous.”
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Actor Jim Broadbent is reported to have said that he turned down an OBE as awards should be given to those who really help others. “I was offered an OBE a couple of years ago, but I said, ‘no,’ and turned it down,” he said in 2012. Broadbent said that he was “not that comfortable” with actors receiving honors, “partly because I think they ought to go to those who really help others. Besides, I like the idea of actors not being part of the establishment. We’re vagabonds and rogues, and we’re not a part of the authorities and establishment, really. If you mix the two together, things get blurry.”
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The renowned journalist declined an offer of an OBE, reportedly because he believed that working journalists should not take honors from those about whom they report. He said, “I tried to find out why I’d been given it and was unable to get a clear answer or, indeed, to find out who had proposed me.”
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The Monty Python star was offered a CBE in 1996 but refused because he thought they were “silly.” John Cleese was later offered a peerage by the then-Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown in 1999. He declined again, because he felt that staying in England during the winter months to work as a peer was “too much of a price to pay.”
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Author John le Carré was included in a 2003 list leaked to The Sunday Times of hundreds of people who had declined an honour, although it was not known why the espionage writer, born David Cornwell, declined the award.
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John Lennon returned the MBE he was awarded alongside the three other Beatles in 1965 over British foreign policy. He reportedly wrote to the Queen, telling her – “Your Majesty, I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against ‘Cold Turkey’ (his then current single with the Plastic Ono Band0 slipping down the charts.”
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John Lennon returned his MBE and criticized UK authorities for foreign policy decisions. “I began to be ashamed of being British,” Lennon said when discussing Britain's involvement in the Biafra war. “I was going to send the MBE back anyway. I could have done it privately, but the press would have found out anyway. You would have been here a week later instead – less impact,” he said during a news conference.
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Film director Ken Loach revealed that he had turned down an OBE in 1977. “It's all the things I think are despicable: patronage, deferring to the monarchy and the name of the British Empire, which is a monument of exploitation and conquest,” he is reported as telling the Radio Times in 2001. “I turned down the OBE because it's not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who've got it.”
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Between 1955 and 1976, the painter turned down honours five times – an OBE, a CBE, a knighthood and twice, a Companion of Honour.
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Welsh actor Michael Sheen had been awarded the OBE in 2009 for his services to drama. He revealed that he had returned his award in 2017 following his own research into the relationship of his native Wales and the British state. This happened when he was asked to air his views about the monarchy in a Raymond Williams lecture, themed around “Who speaks for Wales.”
“I didn't mean any disrespect, but I just realised I'd be a hypocrite if I said the things I was going to say in the lecture about the nature of the relationship between Wales and the British state,” he said.
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In 2001, celebrity chef Nigella Lawson turned down the title of OBE. According to the BBC, she said, “I’m not saving lives and I’m not doing anything other than something I absolutely love.”
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The musician rejected a CBE in 2006. In a statement a spokesperson for Paul Weller simply said, “Paul was surprised and flattered, but it wasn’t really for him.”
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Academic Professor and Hillsborough activist, Phil Scraton rejected the offer of an OBE in the Queen’s 2016 New Year’s Honours list, citing how successive governments reneged “on any kind of support for the families in getting to the truth.” Scraton has been widely praised for snubbing the honour, which he said would not be “fitting” for him to accept.
The academic said at the time, “I feel very strongly that for many years the successive governments refused to take seriously the issues that we raised in those early reports and in Hillsborough: The Truth.”
Scraton added, “I think that many of the people who are involved in offering such honours have been part of that process and I feel very strongly that I could not accept an honour now that these issues have been resolved in the way in which they have. These awards are made without recognising ties to an imperialist history or its legacy. I could not accept an honour tied in name to the ‘British Empire’. In my scholarship and teaching I remain a strong critic of the historical, cultural and political contexts of imperialism and their international legacy.”
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The children’s author, loved by many for his books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG and The Fantastic Mr Fox, refused an OBE in 1986.
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The poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling, who wrote The Jungle Book, declined a knighthood. His wife, Caroline Balestier, reportedly explained his decision by saying Kipling felt he could “do his work better without it.”
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Stephen Hawking revealed in 2008 that he had been approached with the offer of a knighthood in the late 1990s, but declined. It has been reported that this is because of the UK government’s handling of science funding.
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Journalist and author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown accepted and then returned an MBE, writing that she was shamed by fellow poet Benjamin Zephaniah for her acceptance of the award.
“I was stupid once and allowed myself to accept an MBE, partly to please my mum, who was always afraid that my big mouth would get us deported from here, as we were from Uganda,” she wrote in 2006.
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“But I now speak with the zeal of a convert. The honours system sucks and we should start again, devise a fair and independent new method to annually acclaim exceptional citizens for their contribution to the nation, not to overweening political parties or the semi-skilled, dysfunctional Windsors,” she wrote in the Independent.
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