The 1945 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours were announced on 14 August 1945 to mark the resignation of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, following the success of the Labour Party in the 1945 General Election.
The list was particularly notable for four recommendations outside party politics which had the approval of the new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee. These were to the Chiefs of Staff of the armed services and the Ministry of Defence in World War II, honouring what The Times called "the most remarkable achievement of team work in British military history ... followed with conspicuous mastery to its consummation in the most absolute of all victories."
Other nominations followed the usual convention of Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, rewarding loyal service to the Conservative Party and political and personal service to the retiring Prime Minister. Amongst these honours, The Times noted in particular the knighthood for A. P. Herbert, "who has his individual niche in the parliamentary temple as the doughty vindicator of the private member's rights, including not least the right to legislate."
The list included the first awards of the newly inaugurated Defence Medal, intended to honour members of the Home Guard, Civil Defence, and troops serving in non-operational areas. However, these four awards were to people who went with Churchill into operational areas, and were noted as being in a special category.
The recipients are displayed below as they were styled before their new honour.
Famous quotes containing the words prime, minister, resignation and/or honours:
“I came there as prime steak and now I feel like low-grade hamburger.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Resignation, not mystic, not detached, but resignation open- eyed, conscious, and informed by love, is the only one of our feelings for which it is impossible to become a sham.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“If a novel reveals true and vivid relationships, it is a moral work, no matter what the relationships consist in. If the novelist honours the relationship in itself, it will be a great novel.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)