Friday, 22 July 2011

Merit and Honour

The death of Lucian Freud creates vacancies both for a member of the Order of Merit and for a Companion of Honour. Whom should Her Majesty, in whose personal gift they both are, appoint? And why?

4 comments:

  1. Someone from St. Helena.

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  2. In 1906, Edward VII gave it to two Japanese princes, one a sometime Prime Minister, who had founded the Imperial Army and to Admiral Togo, "the Nelson of the East", who was also a GCVO, another one in the monarch's personal gift. No wonder America was so jealous that it blew the Anglo-Japanese alliance apart in 1922. We all know what happened next.

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  3. It cannot be Rupert Murdoch, who long ago renounced his allegiance to the Crown. The Lord Lindsay of Lanchester, OM, CH? I don't know how it hasn't happened already.

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  4. I know, I know. Honestly, Lilibet, what do I have to do?

    She cannot have hated Freud's portrait of her as much as some people did, can she?

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