Dishonour of dark knights
QUESTION How many men have been stripped of their knighthoods? There was Anthony Blunt of the Cambridge spy ring and Fred Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland. Who else? Becoming a knight is one of the highest honours bestowed in the UK. Holding onto it depends on the continued good character of the recipient.
The government has the power to take away the knighthood and publish the decision in the London gazette.
The Forfeiture committee can assess whether an individual should have his or her honour withdrawn if he or she has been found guilty by the courts of a criminal offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of more than three months; or censured or struck off by the relevant regulatory authority or professional body for actions or failures to act, which are directly relevant to the granting of the honour.
The most recent case was professor of nursing george castledine. He was struck from the nursing register in 2014 after being found guilty by the nursing and midwifery council of ‘ sexually and financially motivated’ misconduct.
Fred goodwin was not the only banker to be stripped of his title following the financial crisis. James crosby, former chief executive of HBoS between 2001 and 2006, requested to have his knighthood removed in 2013.
in 2011, Jean else, a former ‘super-head’ at Whalley Range High School in manchester, became the only dame to have her award rescinded. it was removed when she was found guilty of failing to observe minimum standards in recruiting staff, having promoted her twin sister from clerical assistant to assistant head.
Alan Davies was another former head teacher whose knighthood was taken away in 2014 after he admitted false accounting.
Jack Lyons, one of the so- called guinness Four who were convicted in Treason: Roger Casement 1990 of illegally boosting the price of shares four years earlier, was stripped of his knighthood and fined £2.5 million.
Baron Kagan was a Lithuanian-British industrialist and the founder of Kagan Textiles, which made raincoats from the waterproof gannex fabric he had invented, famously worn by Harold Wilson. He was later charged with theft and false accounting, and stripped of his title in 1980.
Anthony Blunt lost his knighthood in 1979 for supplying hundreds of secret documents to the Soviet Union while a wartime agent for mi5.
Joseph Jonas, the former Lord mayor of Sheffield, was stripped of his knighthood in 1918 after being convicted of a misdemeanour, relating to contacts with a german a year before World War i.
irish- born colonial officer Roger casement forfeited his honour when he was convicted of treason for aiding those involved in ireland’s 1916 easter Rising. He was subsequently executed.
Janet Dale, Newcastle.
QUESTION Who first said ‘If you are not a Socialist at 25, you have no heart; if you are not a Conservative at 35, you have no brain’?
THiS quote has been mistakenly attributed to Winston churchill and to Benjamin Disraeli. it has been modified over the years by various sources.
The original version can be found in Portraits contemporains (1875), a book of biographical sketches by academic Jules claretie (1814-1913). His section on politician and academic Anselme Polycarpe Batbie (1828-1887) features the following:
This translates as ‘mr Batbie, in a much celebrated letter, once quoted the Burke paradox in order to account for his bizarre political shifts: “He who is not a Republican at 20 compels one to doubt the generosity of his heart; but he who, after 30, persists, compels one to doubt the soundness of his mind.” ’
Batbie was referring to the statesman edmund Burke, who was noted for his support of the American War of independence and later condemnation of the French Revolution.
The quote is said to have been a favourite of King oscar ii of Sweden, who is credited with substituting the word ‘socialist’ for ‘republican’.
The insertion of the word ‘conservative’ has been traced back to the 1970 U.S. book Student Unrest: Threat or Promise? ‘Adolescent rebellion has been tolerated, and even sanctioned, as a “normal” stage of human development.
‘After all, “if you aren’t a liberal when you’re young, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a middle-aged conservative, you have no head”. ’
J. B. Whiteman, Salford, Gtr Manchester.
QUESTION Timothy Treadwell, who claimed he loved bears more than humans, was famously killed by one. What other ironic deaths are there?
FURTHeR to earlier answers, my greatgrandfather george Wall (1797-1863), who was a general hawker, was badly injured in Talbot Street, Shoreditch, east London, when a wall collapsed on him and injured his arm.
eventually he was admitted to St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he died from his injuries a few days later.
So a brick wall caused the death of george Wall.
Gordon Wall, Wokingham, Berks.
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