Now on the UK Honors List: Ringo Starr
Beatles drummer Ringo Starr was knighted in the U.K.’s New Year’s Honors List, which also makes awards to former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Britain’s first astronaut, Helen Sharman.
Starr — whose real name is Richard Starkey — is awarded a knighthood two decades after the only other surviving Beatle, Paul McCartney, was honoured. McCartney in June was made a Companion of Honour, an award limited to 65 members at any one time. In the latest list, that order is filled for the first time, with broadcaster Melvyn Bragg and the author and historian Antonia Fraser made companions.
The list covers the full spectrum of British society, honouring politicians, civil servants, academics, charity workers, scout and guide leaders, a bell-ringer and a beekeeper. Some 1,123 people received an award, 70 per cent of them for local work outside the public eye. Five percent of the winners have disabilities, 9.2 per cent come from ethnic minorities, and 49 per cent are women, according to the Cabinet Office.
Sharman — who visited Russia’s Mir Space Station in 1991 — is made a companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, an award for those who have served the UK abroad. She beat nearly 13,000 applicants to win the mission to become Britain’s first astronaut. National Security Adviser Mark Sedwill is made a knight commander in the same order, while his predecessor, Mark Lyall Grant, is made a knight grand cross.
Clegg, who lost his seat in the general election in June, is made a knight. He served as former Prime Minister David Cameron’s deputy for five years after taking his Liberal Democrat Party into coalition with Cameron’s Conservatives. Current Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Jo Swinson is made a commander of the Order of the British Empire, or CBE.
Graham Brady, who as chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives could hold Prime Minister Theresa May’s fate in his hands, gets a knighthood. So do Tory lawmakers Christopher Chope and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, while Cheryl Gillan, the longeststanding female member of Parliament in May’s party, is made a dame.