An official document leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper has brought to light the names of 300 people who have rejected an award under Britain’s feudal honours system. The names include Graham Greene, David Hockney, John le Carré, Robert Graves, Francis Bacon, Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, J B Priestley, Anthony Powell, Roald Dahl, Philip Larkin, Trevor Howard, Alastair Sim, LS Lowry, Albert Finney, David Bowie, J G Ballard, Honor Blackman and George Melly. Artist Lowry seems to have rejected five awards, including a knighthood. The actor Albert Finney turned down both a knighthood and a CBE.
Novelist J G Ballard described the honours system to the Sunday Times as a “preposterous charade . . . . It makes us look a laughing stock and encourages deference to the crown,” he added.
This is the first time that the extent of opposition to the honours system, a mainstay of Britain’s class society, has been revealed. Official secrecy has helped bolster the establishment view that the system is consistent with a democratic society. According to the Sunday Times those who reject an honour are “sworn to secrecy.” It did not explain how that was possible, however.