Roll Of Honour
Jan. 27th, 2012 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloThe list of those who turned down honours is a roll of honour in its own right.
Pride of place goes to the painter L.S Lowry. The Palace courted him assiduously, offering different bangles on five separate occasions- and he turned them down every time.
Other artists who said "No"- only not so often- include Ben Nicholson, John Piper, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
Then there are the writers: Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Philip Larkin, Roald Dahl, Graham Greene, Robert Graves, Eleanor Farjeon. At their head stands J.B. Priestley, the only person on the list to turn down a peerage.
Actors love sparkly things, but here are four who resisted: Trevor Howard, Andrew Cruikshank, Paul Scofield and (the most surprising name on the list) Robert Morley.
Pride of place goes to the painter L.S Lowry. The Palace courted him assiduously, offering different bangles on five separate occasions- and he turned them down every time.
Other artists who said "No"- only not so often- include Ben Nicholson, John Piper, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
Then there are the writers: Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Philip Larkin, Roald Dahl, Graham Greene, Robert Graves, Eleanor Farjeon. At their head stands J.B. Priestley, the only person on the list to turn down a peerage.
Actors love sparkly things, but here are four who resisted: Trevor Howard, Andrew Cruikshank, Paul Scofield and (the most surprising name on the list) Robert Morley.
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 10:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 12:30 pm (UTC)Jenny x
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Date: 2012-01-27 12:31 pm (UTC)establishment figures. Roald Dahl is said to have turned down an OBE because he thought he deserved a knighthood. It would be nice to know why they all did it.
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Date: 2012-01-27 12:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 02:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-27 03:31 pm (UTC)But I understand that people often have good reason for accepting. Roger McGough was saying he took his gong because it reflected honour on his city and his working-class roots. Also on Poetry. That's not ignoble.
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Date: 2012-01-27 04:18 pm (UTC)You're right: I'm not at all surprised by Francis Bacon or Robert Graves, but I am by Morley. What were his reasons?
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Date: 2012-01-27 06:51 pm (UTC)I understand he was a very modest man. Perhaps that had something to do with it.
And then there's another roll....
Date: 2012-01-28 12:55 am (UTC)Curious, do you think the British honors system should be completely ended, or do you think it should be modified to resemble, say, that of Canada? ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Canada , i.e. with no knighthoods)
Re: And then there's another roll....
Date: 2012-01-28 10:31 am (UTC)It may be possible to create an honours system which is genuinely democratic and uncorrupt, but I rather doubt it, so I'd rather do without. If you're genuinely distinguished you don't need a gong and if you're not you don't deserve one.
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Date: 2012-01-28 11:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-28 01:02 pm (UTC)I was reading about Dahl the other day. He was- apparently- a most obnoxious person.
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Date: 2012-01-29 12:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-29 05:28 pm (UTC)Children love them because, as J.M. Barrie noted, children are heartless.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 01:28 pm (UTC)