22-636: Harold Arthur Watkinson, 1st Viscount Watkinson , CH , PC (25 January 1910, in Walton on Thames – 19 December 1995, in Bosham ) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. He was Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation between 1955 and 1959 and a cabinet member as Minister of Defence between 1959 and 1962, when he was sacked in the Night of the Long Knives . In 1964 he
44-467: A New Zealand soprano, was given the award in 2018 and Canadian author Margaret Atwood was given the award in 2019. Sebastian Coe , Baron Coe CH represented the Order at the 2023 Coronation . The insignia of the order is in the form of an oval medallion, surmounted by a royal crown (but, until recently, surmounted by an imperial crown ), and with a rectangular panel within, depicting on it an oak tree,
66-616: A quota of 45 members for the United Kingdom , seven for Australia , two each for New Zealand and South Africa , and nine for India , Burma , and the other British colonies . The quota numbers were altered in 1970 to 47 for the United Kingdom, seven for Australia, two for New Zealand, and nine for other Commonwealth realms. The quota was adjusted again in 1975 by adding two places to the New Zealand quota and reducing
88-597: A shield with the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom hanging from one branch, and, on the left, a mounted knight in armour. The insignia's blue border bears in gold letters the motto IN ACTION FAITHFUL AND IN HONOUR CLEAR , Alexander Pope 's description (in iambic pentameter ) in his Epistle to Mr Addison of James Craggs the Younger , later used on Craggs's monument in Westminster Abbey . Men wear
110-526: Is available in a number of machine-readable formats, including XML (delivery by email/ FTP ) and XML/ RDFa via Atom feed . The London Gazette was first published as The Oxford Gazette on 7 November 1665. Charles II and the Royal Court had moved to Oxford to escape the Great Plague of London , and courtiers were unwilling to touch London newspapers for fear of contagion. The Gazette
132-1103: Is not a conventional newspaper offering general news coverage. It does not have a large circulation. Other official newspapers of the UK government are The Edinburgh Gazette and The Belfast Gazette , which, apart from reproducing certain materials of nationwide interest published in The London Gazette , also contain publications specific to Scotland and Northern Ireland , respectively. In turn, The London Gazette carries not only notices of UK-wide interest, but also those relating specifically to entities or people in England and Wales. However, certain notices that are only of specific interest to Scotland or Northern Ireland are also required to be published in The London Gazette . The London , Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes are published by TSO (The Stationery Office) on behalf of His Majesty's Stationery Office . They are subject to Crown copyright . The London Gazette claims to be
154-516: The Julian calendar with the start of year as 25 March. (Modern secondary sources may adjust the start of the calendar year during this period to 1 January, while retaining the original day and month. Using this adjustment, an issue with a printed date of 24 March 1723 ( O.S. ) will be reported as being published in 1724 – the same solar year as an issue published two days later, on 26 March 1724.) In time of war, dispatches from
176-476: The badge on a neck ribbon (red with golden border threads) and women on a bow at the left shoulder. The London Gazette The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom , and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published. The Gazette
198-468: The general public. His Majesty's Stationery Office took over the publication of the Gazette in 1889. Publication of the Gazette was transferred to the private sector in 2006, under government supervision, when HMSO was sold and renamed The Stationery Office . Until Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 came into effect on 1 January 1752 ( N.S. ) , the Gazette was published with a date based on
220-596: The monarch of the Commonwealth realms, who is the Sovereign of the Order of the Companions of Honour, and a maximum of 65 members. Additionally, foreigners or Commonwealth citizens from outside the Commonwealth realms may be added as honorary members. Members are organised into a single class and are appointed by the monarch of the Commonwealth realms in their capacity as sovereign of the order. While membership of
242-531: The most appropriate form of recognition, constituting an honour dissociated from either the acceptance of title or the classification of merit. It is now described as being "awarded for having a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government lasting over a long period of time". The first recipients of the order were all decorated for "services in connection with the war " and were listed in The London Gazette . The order consists of
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#1732791541881264-519: The new constituency of Woking , Surrey in 1950, holding the seat until 1964, and was initially Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation , John Maclay , from 1951 to 1952. He became a government member under Winston Churchill as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour and National Service in 1952, a post he held until December 1955, when he
286-509: The nine for the other countries to seven. Whilst still able to nominate candidates to the order, the Cabinet of Australia has effectively stopped the allocation of this award to that country's citizens in preference to other Australian honours. The last Australian member, Doug Anthony , former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, died on 20 December 2020. Companions from other Commonwealth realms continue to be appointed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa ,
308-681: The oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette . The claim to being oldest is also made by the Stamford Mercury (1712) and Berrow's Worcester Journal (1690). The London Gazette is published each weekday, except for bank holidays . Notices for the following, among others, are published: His Majesty's Stationery Office has digitised all issues of The Gazette, and these are available online. The official Gazettes are published by The Stationery Office . The content
330-415: The order confers no title or precedence , those inducted into the order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH . Appointments to the order are generally made on the advice of prime ministers of the Commonwealth realms. For Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials. Originally, the order was limited to 50 ordinary members, but in 1943 it was enlarged to 65, with
352-781: The peerage as Viscount Watkinson , of Woking in the County of Surrey, in 1964. Lord Watkinson held a number of public and business appointments, including senior positions in the British Institute of Management ; President of the Confederation of British Industry between 1976 and 1977; and Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes Ltd between 1969 and 1974. Watkinson had been an active rock climber in his younger days. He married Vera (Peggy) Langmead in 1939 and they had two daughters. Lord Watkinson died in December 1995, aged 85, and
374-591: The stolid tenant farmer of 1722 to the lavishly spending faux-genteel farmers of 1822: Man to the plough / Wife to the cow Girl to the yarn / Boy to the barn And your rent will be netted. Man tally-ho / Miss piano Wife silk and satin / Boy Greek and Latin And you'll all be Gazetted . Notices of engagement and marriage were also formerly published in the Gazette . Gazettes, modelled on The London Gazette , were issued for most British colonial possessions. Many of these continued after independence, and to
396-475: The various conflicts are published in The London Gazette . Soldiers who are mentioned in despatches will also be named in the Gazette. When members of the armed forces are promoted, and these promotions are published here, the person is said to have been "gazetted". Being "gazetted" (or "in the gazette") also meant having official notice of one's bankruptcy published, as in the classic ten-line poem comparing
418-616: The viscountcy became extinct. Companion of Honour The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms . It was founded on 4 June 1917 by King George V as a reward for outstanding achievements. It was founded on the same date as the Order of the British Empire . The order was originally intended to be conferred upon a limited number of persons for whom this special distinction seemed to be
440-416: Was "Published by Authority" by Henry Muddiman , and its first publication is noted by Samuel Pepys in his diary . The King returned to London as the plague dissipated, and the Gazette moved too, with the first issue of The London Gazette (labelled No. 24) being published on 5 February 1666. The Gazette was not a newspaper in the modern sense: it was sent by post to subscribers, not printed for sale to
462-576: Was ennobled as Viscount Watkinson. Educated at Queen's College, Taunton , and at King's College London , Watkinson worked for the family engineering business between 1929 and 1935 and in technical and engineering journalism between 1935 and 1939. He saw active service as a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War . Watkinson was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for
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#1732791541881484-600: Was made Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation by Sir Anthony Eden , entering the cabinet in January 1957, and remaining there when promoted to Minister of Defence under Harold Macmillan in 1959. Watkinson was one of seven cabinet ministers sacked in July 1962 in Macmillan's Night of the Long Knives . He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1955, a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 1962, and raised to
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