LONDON, 1 January 2005 — British winners at this summer’s Athens Olympics were among hundreds of people recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in her New Year Honours yesterday, with double track gold medallist Kelly Holmes made a Dame.
Holmes, who overcame years of injury to win the 800m and 1,500m titles at the Games, expressed shock that “a girl brought up in a humble council house” would now be officially known as Dame Kelly Holmes.
Rower Matthew Pinsent, who led Britain’s coxless four to an agonisingly close win, becoming in the process one of only five athletes in history to win gold at four successive Olympic Games, was knighted, becoming Sir Matthew.
Such honors are handed out to worthy Britons twice a year, at New Year and in June for the Queen’s Birthday Honors, a date which marks her “official” birthday although the real event is in April.
Although officially the gift of the queen, such gongs are handed out these days following extensive discussions by various government sub-committees, and invariably contain a smattering of crowd-pleasers along with the great and good of business and politics.
Among other recipients on Friday were multi medal winning Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, who also become a Dame, while Roger Daltrey, singer with 1960s rock wildmen The Who, cemented his ascent into the establishment by becoming a CBE, a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Veteran actress Anna Massey was handed the same award, while Great Britain rugby league captain Andrew Farrell was given the more junior title of OBE, making him an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Britain’s Honors system dates back to the 14th century, and was for many centuries a chance for the monarch to directly reward loyal followers and other worthies with titles.
In recent decades it has become increasingly democratic, with members of the public allowed to nominate people they think deserve gongs.
The system received a shake-up in 1992, when then-prime minister John Major decreed that more awards should go to people such as teachers who had made a notable contribution to their communities, rather than the usual roll-call of captains of industry and MPs approaching retirement.
However, critics now charge that the system has become too gimmicky and ruled by political considerations.
A year ago, documents leaked to a newspaper revealed that perennial tennis near-winner Tim Henman had been given an honor to “add interest”, while a leading British scientist, Professor Colin Blakemore, was excluded because officials felt his work with animal experimentation was too controversial.
In recent years, a series of people nominated for awards have also rejected them, many saying that titles such as OBE are anachronisms because of their reference to the long defunct British Empire.
