Gordon Banks WAS lined up for knighthood
... but friends claim a blunder by honours committee meant ’66 hero’s nomination was lost
GORDON Banks missed out on a knighthood – because officials lost key paperwork, it was claimed yesterday.
Friends were sure the 1966 World Cup hero would have been made a Sir in the New Year Honours.
But sources yesterday said nomination papers submitted more than two years ago were mislaid in a blunder by the Government’s honours committee.
A friend of Banks said he may have been about to be awarded the title in the Queen’s Birthday Honour’s later this year instead.
However, England’s 1966 World Cup winning goalie died aged 81 on Tuesday – and knighthoods cannot be awarded posthumously.
Banks was honoured with an OBE for his services to football in 1970. His former Stoke team- mates, with whom he won the League Cup in 1972, led a campaign to see him recognised further with a knighthood.
Banks’ friend and former team-mate Terry Conroy told Sky Sports News: ‘We were confident that in the New Year Honours list he would have received a knighthood.
‘But we were totally unaware until recently that there’d been a mistake with the Government.
‘We only got news at the weekend that they were looking into a new nomination with a view to consider the knighthood for the Queen’s birthday in June/July. Sadly Gordon died 48 hours later.’
Claims that the application papers were lost by officers at the honours committee have been denied by a Cabinet Office source.
Of Banks’ 1966 England team- mates, only Bobby Charlton, in 1994, and Geoff Hurst, in 1998, have been knighted. The World Cupwinning team’s manager Alf Ramsey was knighted in 1967. There have been various calls over the years for the entire team to be made Sirs.
A sports administrator with knowledge of the honours system told Sky that Banks’ name had been discussed in a wider consideration of the 1966 team, when the former England football manager Graham Taylor was on the committee.
But according to the source, Banks had not been mentioned since then. Taylor died two years ago.
The Cabinet Office said it could not comment on whether Banks was in line for a knighthood before his death because the honours nomination process is confidential.
But a source last night told the Mail: ‘The Cabinet Office does not recognise claims that the nomination papers it received were lost.’
Those who have already received an honour normally have to have accomplished something further in different circumstances to receive a higher honour later.
Campaigners for a knighthood for Banks had hoped his charity work, particularly with groups campaigning for cancer and Alzheimer’s research, would have allowed him to become Sir Gordon.
Theresa May paid tribute to Banks during Prime Minister’s Questions this week, saying: ‘He was regarded as one of the world’s greatest goalkeepers but I also know that he did a lot of community work.’
Banks died at his home in Madeley, Staffordshire, with his wife Ursula and his three children Robert, Wendy and Julia at his bedside following a long battle with cancer. As well as helping England win the World Cup, Banks is remembered for stopping a header by Pele at the World Cup in Mexico in 1970 in what is often described as ‘ the greatest save of all time’.
The footballer, who played for Chesterfield and Leicester as well as Stoke, won 73 England caps and collected six Goalkeeper of the Year awards from Fifa. He lost the sight in his right eye following a car crash in 1972, which forced his retirement from the game. He also lost a kidney to cancer in 2005.
Even for our rotten honours system it’s grossly unjust Gordon Banks was never knighted
Stephen Glover in yesterday’s Mail