Order of Merit

In around 1773, King George III considered establishing an order of knighthood to be called the "Order of Minerva" with membership restricted to 24 distinguished artists and authors.[4] Knights would be entitled to the post-nominal letters KM, and would wear a silver nine-pointed breast star with the image of Minerva at its centre, along with a "straw-coloured" sash worn across the chest from the right shoulder.[4] The motto of the Order would be "Omnia posthabita scientiae" (in Latin, 'Everything comes after science'). Once the King's proposal was made public, however, arguments within intellectual circles over who would be most deserving of the new order grew so heated that George ultimately dropped the idea,[4] though he briefly reconsidered it in 1789; on 6 February of that year, he revised the design of the order, with the breast star to have sixteen points, the motto to be the Latin for "Learning improves character" and with membership to include distinguished scientists.[5] Following the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Barham and William Pitt exchanged correspondence concerning the possible creation of an order of merit, though nothing came of the idea.[6]

Later, Queen Victoria, her courtiers, and politicians alike,[7] thought that a new order, based on the Prussian order Pour le Mérite, would make up for the insufficient recognition offered by the established honours system to achievement outside of public service, in fields such as art, music, literature, industry, and science.[6] Victoria's husband, Albert, Prince Consort, took an interest in the matter; it was recorded in his diary that he met Sir Robert Peel on 16 January 1844 to discuss the "idea of institution of a civil Order of Merit" and, three days later, he conferred with the Queen on the subject.[8] The concept did not wither and, on 5 January 1888, British prime minister Lord Salisbury submitted to the Queen a draft constitution for an Order of Merit in Science and Art, consisting of one grade split into two branches of knighthood: the Order of Scientific Merit for Knights of Merit in Science, with the post-nominal letters KMS, and the Order of Artistic Merit for Knights of Merit in Art, with the post-nominal letters KMA. However, Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Royal Academy, advised against the new order, primarily because of its selection process.[9]

King Edward VII, founder of the Order of Merit

Victoria's son, King Edward VII, eventually founded the Order of Merit on 26 June 1902 (the date for which his coronation had been originally planned[10]) as a means to acknowledge "exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and Our Army, or who may have rendered exceptionally meritorious service towards the advancement of Art, Literature and Science".[11] All modern aspects of the order were established under his direction, including the division for military figures.[3]

From the outset, prime ministers attempted to propose candidates or lobbied to influence the monarch's decision on appointments, but the Royal Household adamantly guarded information about potential names.[3] After 1931, when the Statute of Westminster came into being and the Dominions of the British Empire became independent countries, equal in status to the UK, the Order of Merit continued as an honour open to all these realms and, in many, became a part of their national honours systems.[12] The order's statutes were amended in 1935 to include members of the Royal Air Force and, in 1969, the definition of honorary recipients was expanded to include members of the Commonwealth of Nations that are not realms.

From its inception, the order has been open to women, Florence Nightingale being the first woman to receive the honour, in 1907. Several individuals have refused admission into the Order of Merit, including Rudyard Kipling, A. E. Housman, and George Bernard Shaw. To date, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, remains the youngest person ever inducted into the Order of Merit, having been admitted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1968, when he was 47 years of age.[3]

All citizens of the Commonwealth realms are eligible for appointment to the Order of Merit.[2] There may be, however, only 24 living individuals in the order at any given time, not including honorary appointees, and new members are personally selected by the reigning monarch of the realms, currently King Charles III, with the assistance of his private secretaries;[3] the order has thus been described as "quite possibly, the most prestigious honour one can receive on planet Earth."[13] Within the limited membership is a designated military division, with its own unique insignia; though it has not been abolished, it is currently unpopulated, Lord Mountbatten of Burma having been the last person so honoured.[3]

Honorary members form another group, to which there is no numerical limit, though such appointments are rare; individuals from countries in the Commonwealth of Nations that are not headed by King Charles are therefore considered foreigners, and thus are granted only honorary admissions, such as Nelson Mandela (South Africa) and Mother Teresa (India).[1]

Upon admission into the Order of Merit, members are entitled to use the post-nominal letters OM and are entrusted with the badge of the order.

Reverse of the badge, with a ribbon bow

The insignia consists of a badge, which consists of a golden crown from which is suspended a red enamelled cross pattée, itself centred by a disk of blue enamel, surrounded by a laurel wreath.[14] The obverse of the badge's central disk bears the royal cypher of the reigning monarch in gold, while the reverse bears the words FOR MERIT in gold lettering. The insignia for the military grouping is distinguished by a pair of crossed swords behind the central disk.[2]

The ribbon of the Order of Merit is divided into two stripes of red and blue. Men wear their badges on a neck ribbon (as a necklet), while women wear theirs on a ribbon bow pinned to the left shoulder, and aides-de-camp may wear the insignia on their aiguillettes.[14]

Since 1991, it has been required that the insignia be returned upon the recipient's death.[15]

• Sovereign: King Charles III
• Secretary and Registrar: The Lord Fellowes GCB GCVO QSO PC

Substantive members

Member number[lower-alpha 1]	Portrait	Name	Known for	Date of appointment	Present age
1 (169)		The Lord Foster of Thames Bank OM RA HonFREng	Architect and Pritzker laureate	25 November 1997[16]	87
2 (175)		Sir Roger Penrose OM FRS HonFInstP	Mathematical physicist and Nobel laureate	9 May 2000[16]	91
3 (176)		Sir Tom Stoppard OM CBE FRSL HonFBA	Playwright	9 May 2000[16]	85
4 (179)		The Lord Rothschild OM GBE CVO FRCA FBA FKC	Philanthropist	28 October 2002[16]	86
5 (180)		Sir David Attenborough OM GCMG CH CVO CBE FRS FSA FRSA FLS FZS FRSGS FRSB	Broadcaster and naturalist	10 June 2005[16]	96
6 (181)		The Baroness Boothroyd OM PC HonFSLL	Former Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom	10 June 2005[16]	93
7 (183)		The Lord Eames OM	Former primate of All Ireland and former archbishop of Armagh	13 June 2007[16]	85
8 (184)		Sir Tim Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA FBCS	Inventor of the World Wide Web, Founder of the World Wide Web Foundation and Director of the World Wide Web Consortium	13 June 2007[16]	67
9 (185)		The Lord Rees of Ludlow Kt OM FRS FREng FMedSci FRAS HonFInstP	Astronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society	13 June 2007[16]	80
10 (186)		Jean Chrétien PC OM CC KC	Former Prime Minister of Canada (1993–2003)	13 July 2009[17]	88
11 (187)		Neil MacGregor OM AO FSA	Art historian and former Director of the British Museum	4 November 2010[18]	76
12 (188)		David Hockney OM CH RA	Artist	1 January 2012[19]	85
13 (189)		John Howard OM AC	Former Prime Minister of Australia (1996–2007)	1 January 2012[19]	83
14 (190)		Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE	Conductor	1 January 2014[20]	67
15 (192)		Sir Magdi Yacoub OM FRS	Cardiothoracic surgeon	1 January 2014[20]	86
16 (193)		The Lord Darzi of Denham OM KBE PC FRS FMedSci FRCSI FRCS FRCSE FRCPGlas FACS FRCP FREng	Surgeon	1 January 2016[21]	62
17 (194)		Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE FRS FREng	Mechanical engineer	1 January 2016[21]	70
18 (195)		Sir James Dyson OM CBE RDI FRS FREng FCSD FIEE	Inventor and industrial designer	1 January 2016[21]	75
19 (-)		vacant since the death of Sir Aaron Klug, on 20 November 2018.
20 (-)		vacant since the death of Sir Michael Atiyah, on 11 January 2019.
21 (-)		vacant since the death of Sir Michael Howard, on 30 November 2019.
22 (-)		vacant since the death of Lord May of Oxford, on 28 April 2020.
23 (-)		vacant since the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on 9 April 2021.
24 (-)		vacant since the accession of Charles III, on 8 September 2022.
The number shown in parentheses is the individual's place in the wider order of appointment since the Order of Merit's inception.

As the Order of Merit is open to the citizens of fifteen countries, each with their own system of orders, decorations, and medals, the order's place of precedence varies from country to country. While, in the United Kingdom, the order's postnominal letters follow those of Knights and Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, membership in the Order of Merit itself gives members no place in any of the orders of precedence in the United Kingdom. However, Stanley Martin says in his book The Order of Merit 1902–2002: One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour, that the Order of Merit is the pinnacle of the British honours system.[3] Similarly, though it was not listed in the Canadian order of precedence for honours, decorations, and medals until December 2010,[23] Christopher McCreery, an expert on Canadian honours and secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, stated that the Order of Merit was the highest civilian award for merit a Canadian could receive.[24][25]

Some orders of precedence are as follows:

Country	Preceding	Following
Australia Order of precedence	Knight/Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle (KT/LT)	Knight/Dame of the Order of Australia (AK/AD)
Canada Order of precedence[26]	Cross of Valour (CV)	Companion of the Order of Canada (CC)
New Zealand Order of precedence	Knight/Dame Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB)	Member of the Order of New Zealand (ONZ)[27]
United Kingdom	Knight/Dame Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (GCB)	Baronet's Badge (Bt)[28]

• Martin, Stanley (2007), The Order of Merit: One Hundred Years of Matchless Honour, New York City: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., ISBN 978-1-86064-848-9

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Order of Merit.

• Order of Merit (cabinetoffice.gov.uk)
• What is the Order of Merit? (thegazette.co.uk)
• "Merit, Order of" . Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.
• "Merit, Order of" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.