The Queen's Honourable Companions

On the same day that King George V created the Order of the British Empire (see the previous article) he created another honour which celebrates its centenary today. It’s an honour that is not as well known, is more exclusive and is given to some of the finest artists, scientists, politicians, actors and prominent people in the country. It is called the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH).

Like all UK honours, with the exception of the Knight Bachelor, the numbers of living Companions of Honour are restricted to a specific number. In this case to 65 living members (excluding even fewer honorary members). People who become a Companion of Honour don’t get a title but add the letters CH after their name.

Because there have been far fewer Companions of Honour than recipients of the Order of the British Empire it makes it easier for me to list all the lgbt members from its very creation. Generally speaking the appointments to the Order are made in the New Year and Sovereign’s Birthday Honours lists (January and June respectively), as all of the following have.

NAME	BORN/DIED	PROFESSION	APPOINTED
Vita Sackville-West	1892-1962	writer	1 Jan 1948
E. M. Forster	1879-1970	novelist	1 Jan 1953
Benjamin Britten	1913-1976	composer	1 Jun 1953
W. Somerset Maugham	1874-1965	writer	10 Jun 1954
Sir Osbert Sitwell	1892-1969	writer	12 Jun 1958
Alan Lennox-Boyd, later 1st Viscount Boyd	1904-1983	MP, Secretary of State for the Colonies 1954-9	1 Jan 1960
Sir Frederick Ashton	1904-1988	dancer and choreographer	14 Jun 1970
Sir Maurice Bowra	1898-1971	Classical scholar	1 Jan 1971
Sir John Gielgud	1904-2000	actor	11 Jun 1977
Sir Michael Tippett	1905-1998	composer	16 Jun 1979
Sir Alec Guinness	1914-2000	actor	11 Jun 1994
A. L. Rowse	1903-1997	historian	1 Jan 1997
David Hockney	b.1937	artist	14 Jun 1997
Peter Brook	b.1925	theatre director	13 Jun 1998
Sir Howard Hodgkin	1932-2017	artist	1 Jan 2003
Sir Ian McKellen	b.1939	actor and activist	1 Jan 2008
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies	1934-2016	composer and conductor	1 Jan 2013

As you can see from this list there are more lgbt Companions of Honour from the arts than any other profession. This is disproportionate to the composition of professions in the complete list. The complete list contains many more politicians and statesmen than any other group. The oldest member on the list is Peter Brook, who is also the 3rd oldest of all the current Companions.

The Companion who enjoyed the honour for the shortest period was Sir Maurice Bowra. He was appointed a CH in the New year Honours list of 1972 and died the following July. Historian A. L. Rowse was appointed CH in New Year 1997 and he died the following October.

Between 1960 and 1962 there were 6 living lgbt Companions of Honour, the first 6 listed above. Between 2013 and 2016 there were 5, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies being the last appointed of those 5, and the first to pass away.

At present there are only 53 Companions of Honour. Whether it will have the full component of members is unlikely in the foreseeable future.