Order of the Companions of Honour

Lord Tweedsmuir, as Governor General of Canada, wearing the Companion of Honour badge around his neck.

The order consists of 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 Commwealth realms in their capacity as sovereign of the order. While membership of 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.[2] For Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials.[5] Originally, the order was limited to 50 ordinary members, but in 1943 it was enlarged to 65, with 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 the nine for the other countries to seven.[6]

While 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.[7] Companions from other Commonwealth realms continue to be appointed, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, a New Zealand soprano, was given the award in 2018 and Canadian author Margaret Atwood was given the award in 2019.

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, a shield with the Royal 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, later used on Craggs's monument in Westminster Abbey. Men wear the badge on a neck ribbon (red with golden border threads) and women on a bow at the left shoulder.

• Sovereign: King Charles III

Member number[n 1]	Name	Post-nominals	Occupation	Date of appointment	Age
1 (267)	The Lord Tebbit	CH, PC	Politician	31 July 1987	91
2 (270)	The Lord Baker of Dorking	CH, PC	Politician	13 April 1992	88
3 (271)	The Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville	CH, PC	Politician	13 April 1992	88
4 (278)	The Lord King of Bridgwater	CH, PC	Politician	13 April 1992	89
5 (282)	Dame Janet Baker	CH, DBE	Opera singer	31 December 1993	89
6 (287)	The Lord Owen	CH, PC	Politician	11 June 1994	84
7 (289)	Sir David Attenborough	OM, GCMG, CH, CVO, CBE	Broadcaster; naturalist	30 December 1995	96
8 (291)	The Lord Hurd of Westwell	CH, CBE, PC	Politician	30 December 1995	92
9 (294)	David Hockney	OM, CH	Artist	14 June 1997	85
10 (296)	The Lord Heseltine	CH, PC	Politician	2 August 1997	89
11 (297)	The Lord Patten of Barnes	CH, PC	Politician; former Governor of Hong Kong	31 December 1997	78
12 (299)	Sir John Major	KG, CH, PC	Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	31 December 1998	79
13 (300)	Bridget Riley	CH, CBE	Artist	31 December 1998	91
14 (305)	John de Chastelain	CC, CMM, CH, CD	Canadian Army officer; diplomat	31 December 1998	85
15 (317)	Dan McKenzie	CH, FRS	Geophysicist	14 June 2003	80
16 (318)	The Lord Hannay of Chiswick	GCMG, CH	Diplomat	14 June 2003	77
17 (320)	Dame Judi Dench	CH, DBE	Actress	11 June 2005	88
18 (321)	Sir Ian McKellen	CH, CBE	Actor	31 December 2007	83
19 (323)	The Lord Howard of Lympne	CH, PC, KC	Politician	11 June 2011	81
20 (324)	The Lord Young of Cookham	CH, PC	Politician	20 September 2012	81
21 (325)	The Lord Coe	CH, KBE, Hon FRIBA	Politician; athlete; organiser of 2012 Olympics	29 December 2012	66
22 (326)	Peter Higgs	CH, FRS	Physicist	29 December 2012	93
23 (327)	The Lord Strathclyde	CH, PC	Politician	7 January 2013	62
24 (328)	The Lord Campbell of Pittenweem	CH, CBE, PC, KC	Politician	15 June 2013	81
25 (329)	Sir Nicholas Serota	CH	Curator	15 June 2013	76
26 (331)	The Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve	CH, CBE, FBA, FRS, FMedSci	Philosopher	31 December 2013	81
27 (332)	Dame Maggie Smith	CH, DBE	Actress	14 June 2014	88
28 (333)	The Lord Clarke of Nottingham	CH, PC, KC	Politician	22 July 2014	82
29 (336)	Lady Mary Peters	LG, CH, DBE, DStJ	Athlete	1 January 2015	83
30 (339)	The Lord Woolf	CH, PC, FBA, FMedSci	Judge	12 June 2015	89
31 (341)	Sir Roy Strong	CH, FRSL	Art historian; museum director	1 January 2016	87
32 (343)	The Lord Smith of Kelvin	KT, CH	Businessman	11 June 2016	78
33 (344)	The Baroness Amos	LG, CH, PC	Politician; diplomat	11 June 2016	68
34 (345)	George Osborne	CH, PC	Politician; former Chancellor of the Exchequer	4 August 2016	51
35 (347)	Sir Richard Eyre	CH, CBE	Director	31 December 2016	79
36 (348)	Dame Evelyn Glennie	CH, DBE	Musician	31 December 2016	57
37 (349)	Sir Alec Jeffreys	CH, FRS	Geneticist	31 December 2016	73
38 (353)	Sir Mark Elder	CH, CBE	Conductor	17 June 2017	75
39 (355)	Sir Paul McCartney	CH, MBE	Musician	17 June 2017	80
40 (356)	J. K. Rowling	CH, OBE	Author	17 June 2017	57
41 (357)	Dame Stephanie Shirley	CH, DBE, FREng	Entrepreneur; philanthropist	17 June 2017	89
42 (358)	Delia Smith	CH, CBE	Cook; author	17 June 2017	81
43 (359)	The Lord Stern of Brentford	CH, FRS, FBA	Economist	17 June 2017	76
44 (361)	The Lord Bragg	CH, FRS, FBA, FRSL	Broadcaster	30 December 2017	83
45 (362)	Lady Antonia Fraser	CH, DBE, FRSL	Author	30 December 2017	90
46 (363)	Margaret MacMillan	OM, CC, CH	Historian	30 December 2017	79
47 (364)	Richard Henderson	CH, FRS, FMedSci	Biologist	9 June 2018	77
48 (365)	Dame Kiri Te Kanawa	ONZ, CH, DBE, AC	Opera singer	9 June 2018	78
49 (366)	Margaret Atwood	CC, OOnt, CH, FRSC, FRSL	Author	29 December 2018	83
50 (367)	The Lord McLoughlin	CH, PC	Politician	10 September 2019	65
51 (368)	Sir Elton John	CH, CBE	Musician	28 December 2019	75
52 (369)	Sir Keith Thomas	CH, FBA, FLSW, FRHistS	Historian	28 December 2019	90
53 (370)	Sir Paul Smith	CH, CBE, RDI	Fashion designer	10 October 2020	76
54 (371)	Sir David Chipperfield	CH, CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA	Architect	31 December 2020	69
55 (372)	Sir Paul Nurse	OM, CH, FRS, FMedSci, HonFREng, HonFBA, MAE	Geneticist	31 December 2021	74
56 (373)	The Lord Field of Birkenhead	CH, PC, DL	Politician	31 December 2021	80
57 (374)	Sir Quentin Blake	CH, CBE, FCSD, FRSL, RDI	Illustrator	1 June 2022	90
58 (375)	Sir Salman Rushdie	CH, FRSL	Writer	1 June 2022	75
59 (376)	Dame Marina Warner	CH, DBE, FRSL, FBA	Writer	1 June 2022	76
60 (377)	Sir Michael Marmot	CH, FRCP, FFPM, FMedSci, FBA	Academic	31 December 2022	78
61 (378)	Dame Mary Quant	CH, DBE, FCSD, RDI	Fashion designer	31 December 2022	92
62 (-)	Vacant following the death of Peter Brook, on 2 July 2022.
63 (-)	Vacant following the death of James Lovelock, on 26 July 2022.
64 (-)	Vacant following the death of The Lord Young of Graffham on 8 December 2022.
65 (-)	Vacant following the death of Dame Beryl Grey on 10 December 2022

Honorary members

Member number	Name	Post-nominals	Occupation	Date of appointment	Age
1 (261)	Amartya Sen	CH, FBA	Economist	11 May 2000	89

• List of members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
• List of honorary British knights and dames
• List of people who have declined a British honour