Orders, Decorations, and Medals of The United Kingdom - Refusal or Forfeiture

Refusal or Forfeiture

A small number of people each year refuse the offer of an award, usually for personal reasons. Conversely, honours are sometimes removed (forfeited) if a recipient is convicted of a criminal offence or for political reasons. The Honours Forfeiture Committee is an occasional committee convened under the chairmanship of the Head of the Home Civil Service, which considers cases referred to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom where an individual's actions subsequent to their being awarded an honour raises the question of whether they should be allowed to continue to be a holder. Recommendations to rescind are made to The Monarch of the United Kingdom, who has the sole authority to rescind an honour.

In 2009, Gordon Brown confirmed that the process remains as set out in 1994 by the then Prime Minister John Major in a written answer to the House of Commons:

The statutes of most orders of knighthood and the royal warrants of decorations and medals include provision for the Queen to "cancel and annul" appointments and awards. Cancellation is considered in cases where retention of the appointment or award would bring the honours system into disrepute. There are no set guidelines for cancellations, which are considered on a case-by-case basis. Since 1979, the London Gazette has published details of cancellations of 15 appointments and awards—three knighthoods, one CBE, five OBEs, four MBEs and two BEMs.

Notable examples of persons who forfeited their honours include:

• Anthony Blunt, knighted as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures for his services to Art, lost his knighthood in the 1980s when he was revealed to be the "Fourth Man" in the early 1950s Burgess and Maclean spying scandal which also touched on the 1960s Philby spying affair, as a result of which he confessed to the security services. Although Blunt was never charged or convicted, the honour was withdrawn on the advice of the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
• Roger Casement had been honoured for his human rights work while a British diplomat; however, upon being convicted on 30 June 1916 of High Treason for his role in the Irish 1916 Easter Rising, the King directed that Casement would cease to be a member of the Order of St Michael and St George, his name being stricken from the register, and letters patent were also issued "degrading" him "from the degree, title and dignity of Knight Bachelor". He was executed that August.
• Nicolae Ceauşescu forfeited his honorary knighthood that he earlier received for his friendship with Western democracies.
• Albert Henry was the former Premier of the Cook Islands. He was later convicted of electoral fraud in the 1980s.
• Terry Lewis, knighted for his services to Queensland police, was stripped of his knighthood in 1993 after being sentenced to prison on charges of corruption and forgery as a result of the findings of the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
• Jack Lyons, who had received his knighthood for his huge charitable donations and services to industry, lost it when he was convicted of fraud in the 1980s.
• Robert Mugabe was stripped of his honorary GCB after calls from the Government to the Royal Family due to the crisis in Zimbabwe under his régime, including hyperinflation, and violence in the 2008 Presidential elections.
• Lester Piggott, the high-profile jockey, had his OBE removed after being convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for tax evasion.
• Fred Goodwin, the former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland had his knighthood annulled, after the Financial Services Authority found that the failure of RBS had an important role in the financial crisis of 2008-9, because Fred Goodwin was the dominant decision maker at the time.