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: Officers Of The Order Of The British Empire
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Perhaps universal history is the history of the diverse intonation of some metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)