Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity
Medal of an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). (Image from the internet)
I had been hoping to write this article earlier in the centenary year of the British Empire Exhibition, but the excellent recent guest post “An Afternoon with George the Poet: Refreshingly honest conversation about Empire”, reminded me that I had still not done so. I read that George the Poet had turned down the chance to be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2019. Like others before him, including Benjamin Zephaniah* and Professor Gus John, George did not want letters after his name that spoke of British imperialism.
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, to give its full name, is one of a number of “orders of chivalry” under which titles and medals are awarded as part of the UK’s “honours” system. Some of them go back centuries, such as the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Bath. “Chivalry” goes back even further, signifying courtesy and valour – just think of the legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, or Saint George and the dragon (and those who wave the flag of England’s patron saint in protest against immigrants should remember that if he actually existed, he would have been Turkish now!).
15th century painting of St George, rescuing a princess from a dragon. (Image from the internet)
Just as the British Empire is now history, although its legacy is still with us, and the focus for the “Becoming Brent” project, I believe that the Order of the British Empire, or at least that name for it, should also become history. But what is its history? I first started looking into that about 15 years ago, when I was researching the history of the Cox family of Sudbury, and their part in Wembley’s volunteer fire brigade.
Wembley’s volunteer fire brigade, with their fire engine, in 1920. (Courtesy of Carol Snape)
Edward Cox (standing on the right) was the brigade’s Chief Officer from 1920 until it was replaced by a full-time professional Wembley Fire Brigade in 1936. I found that he, and his brother Ernest (sitting on the running board next to him), had the letters O.B.E. after their names, and wondered how they had come to be awarded that honour.
A report from the “Middlesex County Times”, 10 February 1917. (Ealing Local History Library)
Research in local newspapers (on microfilm) took me back to a night in February 1917, when the Wembley Brigade were called out to a fire in Greenford, with Edward as the fire crew’s Captain and Ernest as the engine’s driver. [Luckily, this was during a three-month postponement to his army call-up, so that a new driver could be trained!] The Wembley firemen organised the effort to bring water from the canal, which stopped the fire at the Purex lead paint factory from spreading to the adjacent National Filling Station No.28.
That “filling station” was not a petrol station, but a large complex of wooden huts used for filling 6-inch diameter artillery shells with high explosive charges and poison gas, for use against the German forces on the Western Front. If the fire had spread, it could have been disastrous for people and property over a very wide area!
It was for honouring actions such as these that King George V established the Order of the British Empire in June 1917. The new Order was principally intended to recognise courageous acts by civilians during the First World War, as distinct from the medals which could already be awarded for distinguished military service. As I wrote in my first BEE centenary year article last January, the King had visited many parts of the British Empire, and considered it to be a family of nations (although not all of equal status), so the name of the Order did reflect that the honours could go to anyone within the Empire, not just to his British subjects.
The London Gazette list of OBE medals awarded, July 1920. (Image from the internet)
The Cox brothers’ awards of the Medal of the Order of the British Empire were made in July 1920 (‘For conspicuous courage and devotion to duty on the occasion of a fire at a munitions factory’). They were among the names listed alphabetically in the London Gazette, and as you can see from the image above, one of the first names was Ali Akbar Khan of the Indian Police, for his wartime work in the Straits Settlements (now Singapore and parts of Malaysia).
Thousands of these medals were awarded, and their holders were allowed to use the letters O.B.E. after their names. But the Order of the British Empire was expanded, to reward contributions to the arts and sciences, and for public service and charitable work. Although these were at first awarded in much smaller numbers, there were other classes of honours within the Order, from bottom to top being Member, Officer, Commander, Knight or Dame, and at the very top, Knight or Dame Grand Cross.
I don’t know whether it was because of class snobbery by Officers of the Order, but from 1922 the Medal of the Order of the British Empire was renamed the British Empire Medal. It is now awarded to anyone in Britain or the Commonwealth whose meritorious service ‘is considered worthy of the honour by the Crown’. Those, like the Cox brothers, who had already been awarded the medal could continue to use the letters O.B.E. after their names, but from then on BEM has been the lowest class of honour under the Order, still with “British Empire” in its name.
Why hasn’t that name changed, given that the former British Empire had been redefined as a Commonwealth of Nations as far back as 1949? I’m not the first person to ask that question. In fact, a cross-party House of Commons committee, the Public Administration Select Committee, considered it twenty years ago, and published a report “A Matter of Honour: Reforming the Honours System”, including this recommendation:
An important recommendation from the Select Committee Report in July 2004.
It wasn’t just politicians on the Left who thought this was a good idea. The report includes the views of a former Conservative Prime Minister on removing the word “Empire” and replacing it with “Excellence”, given as part of his evidence to the Committee:
‘Mr Major also backed the idea of an Order of British Excellence. This view was a direct reversal of his opinion of 1993, when he told the House that he could “see no advantage or purpose in changing the Order of the British Empire”. Today, he told us:
“Although that argument still has force, I believe it is now out of date. In order to remove one of the persistent criticisms of the system, I would now be inclined to propose an “Order of British Excellence” with Awards at the level of Companion (i.e. CBE), Officer (OBE) and Member (MBE). This is minimum change for maximum effect. It retains the familiar abbreviations whilst removing reference to an Empire that no longer exists. It does have an awkwardness with Northern Ireland, but no more so than now”.’
I don’t know why Tony Blair’s Labour Government did not follow this sensible advice from Parliament. The Order of the British Empire was already “past its sell buy date” then, and is even more so now. I hope that the current Government will look again at this suggestion, but the people with the greatest power to make that change are the “Sovereign” of the Order and its “Grand Master”. They are, respectively, King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
Do you agree that change is needed? Please feel free to add your comments below.
Philip Grant.
* Benjamin Zephaniah wrote this in 2003 about his
reaction to the offer of an OBE: ‘“Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought.
I get angry when I hear that word ‘empire’; it reminds me of slavery, it
reminds of thousands of years of brutality.”
We can be proud of the British empire
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous (10 November at 01:33),
ReplyDeleteYou may be proud of the British Empire, but if so I suspect that is the image of it you may have been given in school sixty or more years ago.
There is a lot (though perhaps not all) about the British Empire which is nothing to be proud about, such as taking other peoples' lands by force, exploiting those lands and their resources for the profit of wealthy British traders and plantation owners, and doing so through the labour of millions of enslaved people (an appalling British trade in itself).
My hope is that we can use this centenary year of the British Empire Exhibition, and the "Becoming Brent" project, to gain a better and more honest understanding of the Empire's history, including from the perspective of people from the nations which were once part of that Empire.
FOR INFORMATION 1:
ReplyDeleteIf I feel strongly about something that I write about, I think it is best to share my views with the people who have the power to do something about it.
I sent a letter to Buckingham Palace a couple of days ago, but have waited until it should have been received there before sharing the text of it here:
'Dear King Charles and Queen Camilla,
Should the Order of the British Empire be history?
I am enclosing a copy of an article, with that title, which I had published last Saturday on the “Wembley Matters” blog. I hope you can find time to read it, but if not, that you will ask one of your advisers to read it, and report back to you on its contents.
I am an amateur local historian and member of Wembley History Society, and have been writing articles and giving talks at local public libraries in conjunction with the centenary of the British Empire Exhibition, which took place at Wembley Park.
As I have written in my article, your great-grandfather, King George V, established the Order of the British Empire in 1917, for a very good reason: ‘to recognise courageous acts by civilians during the First World War, as distinct from the medals which could already be awarded for distinguished military service.’ Medals awarded under this Order could be awarded to anyone throughout the then British Empire, as all had been involved in supporting Britain in its struggle with Germany and its allies.
Now, however, the word “Empire” in the name of the honour is offensive to many who would otherwise deserve to receive such awards. It is well past time for a new name, or a completely new Order. This was recognised, twenty years ago, by a cross-party House of Commons committee, the Public Administration Select Committee.
The online version of my article contains a “link” to that Committee’s report of July 2004, which recommended: ‘Appointments to the Order of the British Empire should cease as soon as practicable, and a new Order should be founded to take its place.’ Its proposal that the new name should be the Order of British Excellence was supported, in his evidence to the Committee, by a former Prime Minister, Mr (now Sir John) Major: ‘This is minimum change for maximum effect. It retains the familiar abbreviations whilst removing reference to an Empire that no longer exists.’
In speaking recently at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa, you referenced the painful aspects of the British Empire’s past, and stressed the importance of understanding our history, in order ‘to guide us to make the right choices in the future’.
Taking the initiative in ending honours under the Order of the British Empire is an opportunity to make one of those ‘right choices’. As Sovereign, and Grand Master, of the Order of the British Empire respectively, Your Majesties could ask the Prime Minister to take the necessary steps, to bring about the changes already considered and proposed in that report from twenty years ago. I hope that you will do so. Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Philip Grant.
FOR INFORMATION 2:
ReplyDeleteThe other person who could, jointly with the King, take the initiative to make the Order of the British Empire history is the Prime Minister.
It is possible to "email" him at 10 Downing Street (or to a Cabinet Office official who will decide whether he sees it), but only through an online form. This allows a message with a maximum of 1,000 characters (including spaces), which is not much!
The word count on my laptop showed my original edited version at 997 characters, but the No.10 online form still said it was too long. After another small adjustment, this is what I sent:
'I had a blog article published on 9 November - Should the Order of the British Empire be history? This is a link to it:
https://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2024/11/should-order-of-british-empire-be.html
I sent a copy to the King and Queen, with a letter they should receive on 14 November. I wrote: ‘The word Empire in the name of the honour is offensive to many who deserve to receive such awards. It is well past time for a new name, or a completely new Order. This was recognised 20 years ago, by the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee.’
I wrote that, following the Commonwealth HoG meeting in Samoa, there is an opportunity to make the positive change to an Order of British Excellence, recommended in the July 2004 Report*, and suggested that the King ask the Prime Minister to take the necessary steps.
Please brief Sir Keir Starmer on this before his next meeting with the King.
* https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmpubadm/212/212.pdf '