Who's who in the world's most exclusive club: Members of the Order of Merit join the Queen for lunch at Windsor Castle in a meeting that only happens once every two years
- Order of Merit restricted to 24 members, but there are currently only 23 following death of sculptor Sir Anthony Caro
- Meeting, at Windsor Castle, happens every two years and members are asked to wear lounge suits and their badges
- Past members include Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, Thomas Hardy and Nelson Mandela
Widely
respected as the most exclusive club in the world, Members of the Order
of Merit were invited to lunch yesterday at Windsor Castle by the
Queen.
The
Order was founded by Edward VII in 1902 and members are chosen by the
monarch - an honour awarded to individuals of great achievement in the
fields of the arts, learning, literature and science.
It is restricted to 24 members - though there are currently only 23 following the death of sculptor Sir Anthony Caro.
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The world's most exclusive
club: Members of the Order of Merit were invited to lunch yesterday at
Windsor Castle by the Queen. The meeting happens once every two years
Past
members have included Florence Nightingale (the first woman member),
composers Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten,
writers Thomas Hardy and T. S. Eliot, Winston Churchill, Margaret
Thatcher, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.
The
dress code for the meeting - held every two years - is lounge suits and
the tiny Order: a badge of red-and-blue enamel that makes up an
eight-pointed cross surmounted by the Imperial Crown.
In
the centre of the badge, surrounded by a laurel wreath, are the words
‘For Merit’ in golden lettering. Members have the decorations on loan
and, when they die, crosses go back to the Palace. A new member is then
appointed to replace them.
Today,
these are the men - and one woman - who comprise what has been
described as ‘quite possibly, the most prestigious honour one can
receive on planet Earth’...
1 Dr Martin Litchfield West
Dr
West, 77, is one of our most distinguished classicists. Peers called
him ‘on any reckoning, the most brilliant and productive Greek scholar
of his generation, not just in the UK, but worldwide’.
An
Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, in 2001 he acted as ‘Lord
Mallard’ in a bizarre ritual in which he was carried around in a chair
in search of a giant duck that, according to legend, flew out of the
college foundations in 1437.
Prestigious: Members were asked to wear their badges of red-and-blue enamel when they were invited to lunch with the Queen
2 The Hon. John Howard
Howard,
75, is Australia’s most successful modern politician. Prime minister
from 1996 until 2007, he won four general elections on the trot. His
main electoral adviser in 1998 and 2001 was Lynton Crosby, nicknamed
‘the Wizard of Oz’ for his magic touch. The Wizard is now masterminding
David Cameron’s election strategy.
3 The Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien
Chrétien,
81, was Canada’s Liberal PM from 1993 until 2003. In 1995, he did the
Queen a favour by helping stop Quebec becoming independent.
A less welcome memory will be how a Canadian DJ involved her in one an infamous hoax call by pretending to be Chrétien.
The
prankster spoke to the monarch on-air for 15 minutes and elicited a
promise for her to influence the Quebec referendum. The Queen fell for
the ruse, with the Palace describing the incident as ‘irritating and
regrettable’.
4 Sir Timothy Berners-Lee
The
youngest at 59, he has arguably had more influence on the world than
any other Member as inventor of the worldwide web. His achievement is
the one that makes most people proud to call themselves British,
according to a new survey.
5 Lord Eames
Robin
Eames, 78, was Anglican Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh
from 1986 until 2006. Born in Belfast, he deftly negotiated the
political, social and religious crises of the Troubles.
He
was at his most prominent in 1996, when he refused to close Drumcree
Church in Co. Armagh for the annual Orangemen’s March, for fear that it
would increase sectarian tensions.
6 Lord Rees of Ludlow
Astronomer
Royal for 20 years since 1995, Martin Rees, 72, once said aliens may be
‘staring us in the face’ in a form we humans are unable to recognise.
He
was also president of the Royal Society and master of Trinity College,
Cambridge (friend of Professor Stephen Hawking). Has his own asteroid
named after him: ‘Asteroid 4587 Rees’.
7 Neil MacGregor
The
68-year-old received a tsunami of praise after his recently announced
retirement as director of the British Museum — where he boosted visitor
numbers with blockbuster shows such as Pompeii, China’s Terracotta
Warriors and Shakespeare. One of the most flattering tributes was that
he ‘was the man who made dumb objects speak’.
8 Sir Simon Rattle
The
tousle-haired 60-year-old is Britain’s greatest conductor. In 2017, he
will leave his job as principal conductor of the Berlin Philarmonic to
become music director of the London Symphony Orchestra. Born in
Liverpool, in the same road as John Lennon, he’s a devoted fan of
Liverpool FC.
Thrice-married,
his first wife was an American soprano; his second was the
African-American novelist Candace Allen; and his third (and current)
wife is the Czech mezzo soprano Magdalena Kozena, who is 18 years his
junior.
Among the
guests was Britain's greatest conductor Sir Simon Rattle (left) and Sir
Timothy Berners-Lee (right), 59, inventor of the worldwide web
9 Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub
Egyptian-born
Sir Magdi, 79, carried out Britain’s first heart and lung transplant at
Harefield Hospital in 1983 and is thought to have performed more heart
transplants than anyone else. He is professor of cardiothoracic surgery
at Imperial College London.
He was inspired to take up his career after his aunt died of a heart condition while giving birth.
Last
year he caused headlines by recommending that everyone over the age of
40 should take cholesterol-busting statins. The benefits of taking the
controversial drugs ‘massively’ outweigh the risks and to not make them
more widely available is ‘lunacy’, he said.
10 Lord Fellowes
Robert
Fellowes, 73, isn’t a Member. He’s the Order’s secretary and registrar.
The ultimate royal insider, he had to break his customary silence when,
as the Queen’s Private Secretary, he was called to give evidence at his
sister-in-law Diana’s inquest.
‘I
can’t pretend I found it a comfortable experience being in a witness
box for four hours,’ he said. ‘But the Princess’s death was a very, very
great tragedy.’
11 Professor Sir Michael Howard
Sir
Michael, 92, former Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, is
Britain’s most distinguished military historian. Unlike many historians,
he has seen real action: he was twice wounded and, in 1944, awarded the
Military Cross for gallantry at Salerno during the Italian campaign.
While crawling towards the enemy, his comrade trod on a landmine and was
killed.
12 The Lord May of Oxford
Robert
May, 79, is an Australian scientist and professor of zoology who has
served as President of the Royal Society and Chief Scientific Adviser to
the British Government. When he was made a crossbench peer in 2001, he
wanted to be called ‘Baron May of Woollahra’ — a suburb of his native
Sydney.
After
the Australian Prime Minister’s Department objected, he settled for
Baron May of Oxford, where he is a Fellow of Merton College.
He’s
a passionate believer in the dangers of global warming, and has said
that religious leaders should do more to persuade people to combat it.
In this vein, in 2005 he attacked President Bush for ‘acting like a
latter-day Nero who fiddles while the world burns because of global
warming’.
Days
later, he lambasted the British Government’s environmental record,
labelling some of its policies as ‘gutless’ and saying it needed to do
‘a hell of a lot more’.
Her Majesty The Queen, who will be 89
on Tuesday, does not have the Order of Merit but her husband Prince
Philip has been a member since he was 47
13 Professor Sir Roger Penrose
Sir Roger, 83, is a mathematical physicist, specialising in general relativity and cosmology.
In
1988, he shared the Wolf Prize for physics with Stephen Hawking,
recognising their contribution to our understanding of the universe.
His
uncle was the artist, Sir Roland Algernon Penrose, married to the war
photographer, Lee Miller — best known for her pictures of the Nazi
concentration camps, and for the photo of her in Hitler’s bath in
Munich. Born in Colchester, he went to Cambridge University and in the
Sixties calculated many of the basic elements of black holes. Five years
ago, he wrote a book which put forward the theory that the Big Bang is
an endlessly recurring event — a bit like yesterday’s Order of Merit
lunch.
14 Sir Michael Francis Atiyah
Sir
Michael, 85, is one of Britain’s greatest mathematicians. He has won
several of the great maths and science prizes, including the Fields
Medal, the Copley Medal and the Abel Prize.
He
is an expert on topological K-theory — a branch of maths that uses
algebra to investigate space. It’s not known whether Prince Philip
brought up the tricky subject with Sir Michael yesterday — perhaps only
after the Duke had had a glass or two of his favourite Double Diamond
pale ale.
Though
London-born, Atiyah grew up in Sudan, the son of a Lebanese father and
Scottish mother, who was a minister’s daughter, before becoming a
brilliant student at Manchester Grammar School and then Cambridge. He
suffered a terrible loss in 2002 when his eldest son John died while on a
walking holiday in the Pyrenees.
15 Prince Philip
The
Queen’s husband, now 93, has been a Member of the Order since 1968,
longer than any other living member. Aged 47 when he received the
honour, he is the youngest person to become an OM.
16 HM The Queen
Her
Majesty, who will be 89 on Tuesday, does not have the Order of Merit.
But it’s thanks to her that everyone else in the picture has got one.
Guests,
including playwright Sir Tom Stoppard (left) and architect Lord Foster
of Thames Bank (right) were asked to wear lounge suits and the tiny
Order badge
17 Lord Foster of Thames Bank
Norman
Foster, 79, is one of Britain’s most famous architects. Among his
buildings are the Great Court at the British Museum, the Reichstag
renovation in Berlin, the new Wembley Stadium, and London’s Millennium
Bridge, aka the infamous ‘wobbly bridge’.
Disappointingly for all thrill-seekers, the bridge - which was perfectly safe, structurally speaking - was later stabilised.
A grammar school boy from a Manchester suburb, Foster has a passion for aircraft and spent his national service in the RAF.
Having
been knighted and then ennobled, he settled in Switzerland and five
years ago gave up his seat in the Lords in order to maintain his
non-domiciled status. Just the kind of thing, presumably, that the
monarch might frown upon.
18 Sir Tom Stoppard
Britain’s
greatest living playwright, Sir Tom, 77, is the author of Arcadia,
Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead and, most recently, The Hard
Problem. The Czech-born writer is renowned for the fiendish complexity
of many of his plays.
A former journalist, Stoppard was once interviewed for a job by London Evening Standard editor, Charles Wintour.
‘I gather you’re interested in politics,’ said Wintour. ‘Who’s the Home Secretary?’
‘Look,’ said Stoppard, ‘I said I was interested, not obsessed.’
His
personal life has been colourful, to say the least. In 1939, he left
Czechoslovakia as a child refugee, fleeing the Nazis before eventually
settling in Britain after the war.
He
has been married three times, with his wives including the writer
Miriam Stoppard (whom he left to begin a relationship with Felicity
Kendal), and more recently socialite Sabrina Guinness, who he wed last
year.
In 1977, the Queen hosted Members of
the Order of Merit including J. B. Priestley, Earl Mountbatten of Burma,
Lord Hinton of Bankside and Henry Moore
The Queen is pictured in 1987 with
members of the Order of Merit at Buckingham Palace including author
Graham Greene, engineer Sir Frank Whittle and musician Sir Yehudi
Menuhin
Past members include Margaret
Thatcher, Dame Joan Sutherland and Sir Andrew Huxley. They are pictured
with the Queen and fellow members in 1997
19 Lord Rothschild
Jacob
Rothschild, 78, heads the British wing of the great Rothschild banking
clan. He left the family bank, NM Rothschild & Sons, in 1980 to run
the Rothschild Investment Trust, now one of the biggest investment
trusts in the country.
A keen philanthropist, he has generously endowed the National Gallery and Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.
Educated
at Eton and Oxford, he was once a business partner of the late Jimmy
Goldsmith, as well as being a close friend of Princess Diana.
Of
his four children, by far the most colourful is Nat, a billionaire
financier who once admitted — during a court battle with the Mail — that
he and Peter Mandelson had been flogged with birch twigs in a Russian
sauna.
20 Baroness Boothroyd
Betty Boothroyd, 85, was the first female Speaker of the Commons in Parliament’s 700-year history.
When
asked in her previous post as Deputy Speaker how she should be
addressed, she said: ‘Call me Madam.’ Whereas Speakers normally shout
‘Order, order!’ during Prime Minister’s Questions, she preferred the
simple catchphrase: ‘Right, time’s up!’
The
Yorkshire lass had once worked for Britain’s most famous chorus line
dancers, the Tiller Girls, before becoming a Labour MP. In recent years,
she has attacked Tony Blair’s government for its ‘spin’, ‘sleaze’ and
arrogance.
21 Sir David Attenborough
Sir
David, 88, is Britain’s leading natural history broadcaster,
world-famous for his nine Life series for the BBC. He is personally
well-known to the Queen after producing her Royal Christmas Message from
1986 until 1991.
The
sheer longevity of his career on television, which stretches back over
60 years, allied to his reputation as a brilliant and dedicated
naturalist, means he has had a number of species of plants and animals
named after him, from a flightless weevil beetle to the Attenborosaurus.
A
grammar school boy who went to Cambridge, he has suffered his share of
tragedy, however, first losing his wife of nearly 50 years — with whom
he had two children — and last year his film director brother Richard.
Sir David Attenborough (pictured),
Britain’s leading natural history broadcaster, is also part of what has
been described as the most exclusive club in the world
Other members absent from the picture:
The Prince of Wales
Prince
Charles, 66, has been a Member since 2002. He and his father are the
only OMs who are also Knights of the Garter and the Thistle.
How
does he fare intellectually in such elevated company? Just five
O-levels and the 2:2 history degree he earned at Cambridge might give a
clue.
David Hockney
Hockney,
77, has been one of Britain’s most popular artists since he spearheaded
the Pop Art explosion in the early 1960s. Well into his eighth decade,
he remains astonishingly prolific and original.
After
many years living in Los Angeles, he has been spending more time
recently in his native Yorkshire, painting the English countryside in
all seasons. Hockney is a keen defender of smokers’ rights.
Yet
another grammar school boy — in his case at Bradford — he studied at
the Royal College of Art before he settled on the West Coast of America,
and fell in love with the piercing light which features so strongly in
many of his paintings.
Having
settled back in Britain, Hockney was deeply saddened two years ago when
his 23-year-old assistant, Dominic Elliott, died after drinking toilet
cleaner during a drink and drugs binge at the artist’s Bridlington
studio.
Sir Aaron Klug
Sir
Aaron, 88, is a biophysicist and chemist, who won the 1982 Nobel Prize
in Chemistry for his development of crystallographic electron
microscopy.
In
the 1950s, he worked with Rosalind Franklin, the great British DNA
pioneer. Despite his scientific genius, he says he’s getting more
religious as he grows older.
The
son of a saddler, he was raised in Durban in South Africa before coming
to Britain to study at Cambridge. He married a trained dancer with whom
he had two sons.
The Reverend Professor William Owen Chadwick
At 98, Professor Chadwick is the oldest Member.
The ecclesiastical historian was Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge from 1968 until 1983.
He
was also a keen rugby player: having won three Blues for Cambridge,
played for the Barbarians and, in 1936, was in the British Isles XV that
defeated Argentina 23-0.
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