As New Year approaches many people across the UK will be wondering which big names are set to be honoured. However while most people accept their OBE or CBE there have been plenty of people over the years who, for various reasons, have declined their award.
Thousands of people are named to the New Year’s honours list each year for a whole variety of services and achievements, with this year’s being revealed on December 30. Historically, when some did decline the award they generally did so without publicising the decision.
However recent years have seen more people revealing both that they refused an award, and why they did so. It is still unusual, and sometimes the reasons behind someone’s decision even come from leaks from official sources, the Mirror reports.
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There are also the occasions where someone might initially accept an offer, but then decide to return it later. People who have been put forward for an award are generally contacted around six weeks in advance to confirm in writing that they do wish to be nominated, as a means of avoiding any difficult scenarios.
The reign of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest of any British monarch at just over 70 years on the throne, saw many thousands of people recognised. Official numbers from 2012 show that between 1951 and 1999 some 277 people had declined new year or birthday honours.
There are some big names on the list, and people have declined the award for many reasons. Some did so due to their personal beliefs, others because they didn’t feel that the award to deserved.
In the UK we have five different honours, starting with an MBE, then an OBE and a CBE. Finally you can have a KBE or DBE, meaning Knight or Dame Commander, and then a GBE meaning Knight or Dame Grand Cross, with the last two meaning that you are officially a knight or a dame.
So is are some of the people who’ve said no to an honour?
David Bowie
Singer David Bowie performing Live Ziggy Stardust tour in 1972 -Credit:Photo by Armando Gallo/Getty Images
The Ziggy Stardust star was public about why he didn’t want to accept a knighthood. He said: “I would never have any intention of accepting anything like that. I seriously don’t know what it’s for. It’s not what I spent my life working for.”
On Sir Mick Jagger’s acceptance, Bowie maintained a diplomatic stance, saying: “It’s not my place to make a judgment on Jagger – it’s his decision. But it’s just not for me.”
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders
The comedy double act were offered OBEs “for services to comedy drama” back in 2001, but declined them. Explaining why, Saunders later told Source magazine: “If I felt I deserved a damehood I’d accept it. At the time we felt that we were being paid very well to have a lot of fun. It didn’t seem right somehow. We didn’t deserve a pat on the back. It felt a bit fake to stand alongside people who devoted their lives to truly worthy causes.”
Nigella Lawson
Nigella Lawson -Credit:BBC/Jay Brookes
The iconic TV chef shared a similar reason for declining her OBE in 2001. She said: “I’m not saving lives and I’m not doing anything other than something I absolutely love.”
Stephen Hawking
The famous astrophysicist revealed in 2008 that he had been offered a knighthood in the 1990s, a higher honour than the CBE he held, but turned it down. While the exact reasons are not clear, it was suggested later that government funding cuts to science may have been a factor.
John Lennon
-Credit:Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
At first Lennon accepted an MBE, but decided to return it in 1969 as a stand against Britain’s foreign policy. He wrote: “Your Majesty, I am returning this in protest against Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts. With Love, John Lennon of Bag.”
George Harrison
In 2000 the former Beatle declined an OBE, not long after his fellow Beatles alumnus Paul McCartney was given a knightly honour. The reason is not exactly clear, but some have suggested it was connected to McCartney receiving a knighthood.
“Whoever it was who decided to offer him the OBE and not the knighthood was extraordinarily insensitive,” Harrison’s mate Roy Connolly dished to the Independent. “George would have felt insulted – and with very good reason.”
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah -Credit:PA
Iconic poet, who died in December 2023 at the age of 65, made clear his reasons for publicly rejecting an OBE in 2003. He said he would decline the award in protest against British government policies and the British Empire.
Writing in the Guardian, he said how the word ’empire’, which is included in the title, “reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised”. Zephaniah described himself as “profoundly anti-empire”.
Michael Sheen
Star of screen and stage Michael Sheen was awarded an OBE in 2009. However in 2017 he made the decision to return the aware after researching the history between England and Wales.
In 2020, he told the Guardian’s Owen Jones: “By the time I had finished writing that lecture…I remember sitting there going: ‘Well, I have a choice – I either don’t give this lecture and hold on to my OBE or I give this lecture and I have to give my OBE back,'”
John Cleese
Fawlty Towers star John Cleese -Credit:PA
Monty Python star John Cleese was offered a CBE in 1996, but dismissed it as ‘silly’. In 1999 he was on the table for a peerage courtesy of Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown.
But Cleese was not keen as being a working peer would require him to overwinter in the UK. He described this as “too much of a price to pay”.
Paul Weller
The music legend politely declined a CBE in 2006. His representative noted in a statement: “Paul was surprised and flattered but it wasn’t really for him.”
Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl -Credit:Getty Images
The renowned children’s author, famous for enchanting tales such as ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ and ‘James and the Giant Peach’, declined a knighthood offered in the 1986 New Year’s honours. The revelation came through a Telegraph freedom of information request, but the justification for his refusal wasn’t disclosed.
Bernie Ecclestone
The ex-chief of Formula One Group, who admitted to fraud over undeclared assets worth £400m, also refused an honour in the early 2000s. In a 2019 interview, he explained that while he was pleased to have done some good, his primary motivation in business wasn’t to earn accolades, so he didn’t believe he deserved the honour.
Jon Snow
The face that used to front Channel 4 News, not the Game of Thrones bloke. He gave a polite ‘no thanks’ to an OBE in 2000 and went full snoop two years later with a doc called Secrets of the Honours System. Snow said: “I tried to find out why I’d been given it and was unable to get a clear answer or, indeed, to find out who had proposed me,”.
Ken Loach
Director Ken Loach, who is famous for his gritty films on difficult subjects such as poverty, bid goodbye to an OBE in 1977. In 2001 he explained why to the Radio Times.
“It’s all the things I think are despicable: patronage, deferring to the monarchy, and the name of the British Empire, which is a monument of exploitation and conquest,” he said. “I turned down the OBE because it’s not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who’ve got it.”
Danny Boyle
Fellow director Danny Boyle had a different reason for turning down his award, which he was offered for his role in the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. Explaining why, Boyle said he felt it “was wrong” for him to take credit for a collective effort, saying that “it’s not just me” and the ceremony was the result of the hard work and contributions of thousands of people.
“You can make these speeches about: ‘This is everybody’s work, blah blah blah’. And you’ve got to mean it, and I did mean it, and it is true, and it’s the only way you can carry on something like that: through the efforts of all the people. I don’t know whether I’ll ever get invited back to the palace.”
LS Lowry
The renowned painter is said to have rejected more honours than anyone else, including a knighthood, a CBE, and an OBE. His friend Harold Riley disclosed that Lowry was a private man who didn’t want the attention or to change his name, which played a part in his decision to turn down the honours.
Huw T Edwards
The Welsh trade unionist and Welsh Labour politician was uncomfortable with honours and refused a knighthood on at least two occasions in subsequent years. He had previously accepted an MBE before later renouncing it.
Rudyard Kipling
The writer and poet declined a knighthood in 1899 and again in 1903. His wife said that Kipling felt he could “do his work better without it”. Kipling also declined the Order of Merit in 1921 and again in 1924. Kipling expressed his own view on the importance of titles and poetry in his poem The Last Rhyme of True Thomas.
Honor Blackman
Before her death in 2020 the Bond actress was a vocal supporter of Republic, the campaign for an elected head of state in the UK – so it’s hardly surprising that she turned down a CBE in 2002. Blackman also publicly criticised fellow Bond star Sir Sean Connery for his tax-evading habits. “I don’t think you should accept a title from a country and then pay absolutely no tax towards it,” she said in 2012. “I don’t think his principles are very high.”
Jim Broadbent
The national treasure snubbed an OBE in 2002, explaining that he couldn’t reconcile with actors receiving Royal accolades. “I think [honours] ought to go to those who really help others,” he mentioned in a chat with the Telegraph. “Besides I like the idea of actors not being part of the Establishment. We’re vagabonds and rogues.”
Broadbent also expressed his unease with the honours’ undercurrents, revealing: “I don’t think the British Empire is something that I particularly want to celebrate.”
Albert Finney
He shunned both a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood two decades later. The Bourne actor lambasted the honours system, terming knighthoods as a symptom of sickness that “perpetuates snobbery”.
Andrew Davies
The Welsh scriptwriter famed for House of Cards and his version of Pride and Prejudice, reportedly refused an honour, though his motives remain undisclosed.
Alan Rickman
The cherished actor is believed to have declined a CBE during his lifetime. He never disclosed why, and after his death, there has been a movement seeking to award him a knighthood posthumously, but no progress on this has emerged.
John Lydon
Otherwise known and Jonnie Rotten, the former Sex Pistols front man was offered an MBE. Given the band’s repertoire, including ‘God Save the Queen’, it’s no surprise he said no.