The Queen's Birthday Honours (or King's Birthday Honours) is a part of the British honours system, being a civic occasion on the celebration of the Queen's Official Birthday in which new members of most Commonwealth Realms honours are named. The awards are presented by the reigning monarch or head of state, currently Queen Elizabeth II. All Royal honours conferred by Her Majesty are made official by publication in supplements to the London Gazette. The lists are also published by the quality broadsheet newspapers, most notably The Times. Honours have been awarded on the monarch's birthday since at least the 9 of November 1908, the birthday of King Edward VII (1901–1910). After that year the monarch's official birthday was moved to the first, second or third Saturday in June (for the UK), on which date the Birthday Honours lists have subsequently been published. Other Commonwealth Realms celebrate Queen's Birthday on different dates (generally late May or early June), and release their honours lists on different dates accordingly.
Read more about Queen's Birthday Honours: Birthday Honours Lists
Famous quotes containing the words queen, birthday and/or honours:
“Oh Sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!
To Mary Queen the praise be given!
She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
That slid into my soul.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
“Come hither, all ye empty things,
Ye bubbles rais’d by breath of Kings;
Who float upon the tide of state,
Come hither, and behold your fate.
Let pride be taught by this rebuke,
How very mean a thing’s a Duke;
From all his ill-got honours flung,
Turn’d to that dirt from whence he sprung.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)