Memorandum by Captain J G Fergusson (HON
58)
I was astonished to read in a recent Telegraph
that there is a move to abolish knighthoods. I presume this
could not possibly include the Orders of Chivalry. In any case
I am totally against the idea.
I understand comments are invited by the general
public to reach the Public Administration Committee by 1 April,
though the address was not given.
I would be most grateful if you would pass this
letter on to the correct recipient.
I can obviously see the reason for terminating
the Order of the British Empire, except of course we still have
certain colonies such as Gibraltar. The Order could well be retained
to commemorate our once great empire. However, there is much general
feeling against it. Those who already belong to the Order should
not, in my opinion have their post nominal letters altered.
The Order of Great Britain is out of the question
because of the KGB.
One cannot have the United Kingdom because of
Northern Ireland.
I would therefore suggest The Superlative Order
of the Commonwealth of Nations, of which our monarch is Head and
I do not see that this should "tread on the toes" of
Australia, New Zealand and Canada, who each have their own Orders,
which would be retained.
The classes of the Order would be:
| CNM | The Commonwealth of Nations Medal
|
| MCN | Member of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations
|
| OCN | Officer of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations or possibly,
|
| LBC | Lieutenant of ditto |
| CCN | Commander of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations
|
| KCN | Knight of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations
|
| DCN | Dame of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations
|
| GCCN | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations
|
| DCCN | Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Commonwealth of Nations
|
The three junior medals of the Order could have appropriate
clasps indicating to what part of the Commonwealth the recipient
belonged.
Another possibility would be The Elizabethan Order. It was
suggested by The Daily Mirror over 40 years ago.
Having regard to the Royal Guelphic Order, the Order of Windsor
could be considered. The post nominal letters would be:
WM, MW, OW, or LW, CW, KW, DW, GCW, DCW.
As there are already Knights of Windsor connected to Order
of the Garter with no title or post nominal letters, I would be
against this, especially as the post nominal letters look clumsy.
To sum up I think it has to be The Order of the Commonwealth
of Nations.
I hope these comments and suggestions are useful and carefully
considered and possibly submitted to Her Majesty in due course.
I would appreciate an acknowledgement. I have refrained from a
letter to a newspaper on the subject and am surprised to have
seen only one letter in the paper I take.
February 2004
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