List of people who have declined a British honour

From Academic Kids

The following is a partial list of people who have declined a British honour, such as a knighthood or an Order of the British Empire. In most cases, the honour was rejected privately; others were rejected publicly, or accepted then returned later, as with John Lennon and Rabindranath Tagore. Some potential recipients have rejected one honour then accepted another one (such as Alfred Hitchcock), or have initially refused an honour then accepted it (such as Helen Mirren), or have accepted one honour then declined another (such as Vanessa Redgrave), or refused in the hopes of another (Roald Dahl was offered an OBE but refused because he wanted a knighthood so that his wife would be Lady Dahl). This often has as much to do with the political party in power as anything else, since honours are widely seen as being political rewards. Sometimes a potential recipient will refuse a knighthood or peerage, but will accept an honour that does not carry a title (Paul Scofield and Augustus John are examples).

Many of these were identified in December 2003 when a confidential document containing over 300 names of such people was leaked to the Sunday Times:

Peter Alliss, golf professional
Frank Auerbach, artist
Francis Bacon, artist
J. G. Ballard, author
Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International
Alan Bennett
Isaiah Berlin
Honor Blackman, Bond girl and actress in The Avengers
David Bowie, musician
Kenneth Branagh, actor and director
Jim Broadbent
John Cleese, comedian
John Cole
Roald Dahl, author
Bernie Ecclestone, owner of Formula One
Albert Finney, actor
Michael Frayn
Dawn French, comedienne
Lucian Freud
Robert Graves
Graham Greene, author
Lenny Henry, comedian
Alfred Hitchcock, director
David Hockney
Trevor Howard
Aldous Huxley, author
Augustus John
Anish Kapoor
Philip Larkin
Richard Lambert
Nigella Lawson, cook
John le Carr�, author
John Lennon, musician
Doris Lessing, author
Ken Loach, director
L. S. Lowry
Hank Marvin, guitarist (The Shadows)
Barry McGuigan, boxer
George Melly
Helen Mirren, actress
Harold Pinter, playwright
Anthony Powell
J. B. Priestley
Vanessa Redgrave, actress
Keith Richards, guitarist (The Rolling Stones)
Jennifer Saunders, comedienne
Paul Scofield
Alastair Sim
Claire Tomalin
Polly Toynbee
Evelyn Waugh
Rachel Whiteread
Bill Woodfull, cricket player
Benjamin Zephaniah, poet

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List of people who have declined a British honour

From Academic Kids

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