Can the Queen De-Knight Someone?

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Nutso
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Can the Queen De-Knight Someone?

Post by Nutso »

The article's from 2011 and based around the phone hacking scandal in the U.K. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... meone.html
Members of the British Parliament grilled outgoing Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson on Tuesday about his failure to uncover the breadth of the phone hacking scandal, as well as on his personal connections to Rupert Murdoch's News International. Stephenson was knighted in 2008 for his service to the country. Is there any chance the Queen will revoke his knighthood?

In most cases involving British citizens, honors are subject to revocation when an honoree commits a crime carrying a prison sentence of three months or more, or if a professional organization in the field for which the honors were originally bestowed censures or expels the honoree. Revocation isn't automatic in either case. First, an individual or group has to notify the Honours Forfeiture Committee of the transgression. The committee then holds a closed hearing, and decides the honoree's fate. (There's no opportunity for the honoree to defend himself.) The Queen technically makes the final call on whether to strip the knight or dame of the title, but she generally follows the committee's recommendation. At that point, the dissed honoree receives a letter announcing the decision and is expected to return the medal. Public shaming is also part of the process—the London Gazette publishes all revocations.

British monarchs aren't too hesitant to admit their mistakes. Five knights bachelor—the title held by Stephenson—have seen their knighthood revoked in the last century. Jack Lyons was the last British citizen to lose the title of knight bachelor in 1991, when he participated in a scheme to inflate the share price of Guinness.

Stephenson wouldn't even be the first police officer to fall from knighthood. Terry Lewis, an Australian officer who, like Stephenson, was both a knight bachelor and a recipient of the Queen's Police Medal, was stripped of his title in 1993. Lewis had taken kickbacks from men running a prostitution ring. (Although Lewis received his knighthood in Australia, he was part of the same knighthood system as Stephenson, because Queen Elizabeth II is the "fountain of honour" in Commonwealth nations. But Lewis' revocation didn't go through the U.K. Honours Forfeiture Committee.)
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Captain Seafort
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Re: Can the Queen De-Knight Someone?

Post by Captain Seafort »

The article's showing it's age when it says "Jack Lyons was the last British citizen to lose the title of knight bachelor in 1991" - Fred Goodwin lost his knighthood in 2012.
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Re: Can the Queen De-Knight Someone?

Post by Teaos »

If you want to get super technical, every time a knight dies he loses his knighthood. Since its a living honour. They were saying Jimmy Savile should be stripped of his knight hood after he died once his crimes came out, but it was stated that its impossible since he was no longer a knight.
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