History
King George V founded the order to fill gaps in the British honours system:
- the Most Honourable Order of the Bath honoured only senior military officers and civil servants;
- the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George honoured diplomats; and
- the Royal Victorian Order honoured those who had personally served the Royal Family.
In particular, King George V wished to honour the many thousands of people who had served in numerous non-combatant capacities during the First World War. Originally, the Order included only one division; however, in 1918, soon after its foundation, it was formally divided into Military and Civil Divisions.
Several previous foreign statesmen and diplomats who have performed service for, or on behalf of, the United Kingdom have been given the designations of Knight Commander or Knights Grand Cross of the Order. However, since membership requires swearing allegiance to a foreign Head of State (currently Queen Elizabeth II), these titles are officially considered "honorary", and the person is not entitled to be referred to as Sir or Dame. Occasionally the media incorrectly refer to foreign recipients with the prefix title, an example being Bob Geldof Hon. KBE, a Republic of Ireland citizen.
Read more about this topic: Members Of The Order Of The British Empire
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)