Order of Merit
The Order of Merit is a British order that was founded by King Edward VII on July 23, 1902 to honor personalities who have made outstanding achievements in the military, in science, art, literature or other fields.
Order decoration
The medal is a blue-bordered, red enameled, circular spade cross in gold , which is surmounted by a Tudor crown. In the middle, on blue enamel , surrounded by a laurel wreath, are the words For Merit written in gold letters . The badge for the military department also has crossed swords in the middle. The ribbon is in blue and red.
General
The decision about the award of the medal is made exclusively by the monarch, a proposal from the prime minister is not required. The order, which has only one class, is divided into a civil and a military division; the number of members for both departments together is limited to 24 plus the king or queen. The so far last medal of the military department was Earl Mountbatten of Burma († 1979). The Military Department of the Order has had no members since his death, but it still officially exists.
The Order of Merit could also be bestowed on women from the beginning; Florence Nightingale was the first to bear the order in 1907. The medal can also be awarded to foreigners on an honorary basis; they are not included in the maximum number and the number of foreign medals is not limited. Foreign holders of the order included Albert Schweitzer , Dwight D. Eisenhower , Mother Teresa and, for the time being, the last from 1995, Nelson Mandela . No foreigners have been wearing the medal since Mandela's death.
With the award of the Order of Merit, the honored is not knighted, so may not call himself Sir . However, he is authorized to add the letters 'OM' (so-called post-nominal ) to his name .
Between 1907 and 1913 a total of 24 portrait drawings of the first members of the order were made; 14 of them by William Strang . The portrait of Henry James was designed by John Singer Sargent . With the outbreak of the First World War , the portrait drawings fell into oblivion. It was not until 1987 that Queen Elizabeth II revived this tradition. 60 more portraits have been drawn since 1988, including the picture of David Attenborough by Jonathan Yeo in 2012. Lucian Freud made a self-portrait . The only medal holder who does not have a portrait is Neil MacGregor . The drawings are exhibited in the Royal Collection .
Current order members
- Chair: Elisabeth II.
- Members:
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1968)
- Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank (1997), architect
- Sir Roger Penrose (2000), mathematician
- Sir Tom Stoppard (2000), author
- Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (2002)
- Robert May, Baron May of Oxford (2002), zoologist, former President of the Royal Society
- Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild (2002), banker
- Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (2005), former Speaker of the House of Commons
- Sir David Attenborough (2005), naturalist and wildlife filmmaker
- Sir Tim Berners-Lee (2007), computer scientist, inventor of the World Wide Web
- Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow (2007), astronomer and President of the Royal Society
- Robert Eames, Baron Eames of Armagh (2007), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of the Church of Ireland
- Jean Chrétien (2009), former Prime Minister of Canada
- Neil MacGregor (2010), Director of the British Museum
- David Hockney (2012), painter, graphic artist, set designer and photographer
- John Howard (2012), Former Prime Minister of Australia
- Sir Simon Rattle (2014), conductor
- Sir Magdi Yacoub (2014), cardiac surgeon
- Ara Darzi, Baron Darzi of Denham (2015), surgeon and politician
- Dame Ann Dowling (2015), mechanical engineer
- Sir James Dyson (2015), entrepreneur
Deceased members of the order
literature
- Paul Ohm Hieronymussen: Handbook of European orders in colors. Universitas Verlag, Berlin 1966, pp. 118–119.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Order of Merit , royal.gov.uk, accessed January 13, 2015