Garter Appointments 2025

[Guru]

St Georges Day is approaching. There are four free spaces currently in the Order of Garter. Traditionally they have been filled in two's or three's. How many will the king choose to appoint this year?

Who is in contention?

The Duke of Norfolk as a reward for organising the coronation?

Sir David Attenborough?

[LoopyCrown3]

Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton

Baroness May of Maidenhead

[Guru]

Isn't baron Cameron of Chipping Norton a little young? Didn't Tony Blair have to wait until he was around 70 before he got it?

What about Gordon Brown. He hasn't got anything yet and he was earlier.

[Kenneth Stone]

Wouldn't Gordon Brown be a more suitable candidate for the Thistle rather than the Garter?

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[S. S.]

Isn't the Thistle full after last year's appointments. 

S.S.

[BREMENMURRAY]

With a record eight former Prime Ministers living at the same time potentially one third of the order of the Garter could be filled with them

[malcolm davies]

While there are four vacancies in the order,only three of them are likely to be filled on 23 April as Sir Thomas Dunne only died in January and it takes the Palace about a year to decide on a replacement(one of the vacancies was caused by the death of Lord Boyce who died in November 2022).

Note that the order contains only 4 hereditary peers:Abercorn,Salisbury,Brookeborough & Shuttleworth.There are 12 life peers and 4 knights or ladies who hold no other title.

14 holders owe their appointment to political or government service,which I think is unbalanced.5 are lord lieutenants.There are 2 military members which is over representation given the country is not at war and the number of service personnel is at a record low.Lord Lloyd Webber is the only holder who does not owe his appointment to government service or service to the Crown.

It is rare now for a knight appointed to be under 70-to do otherwise means the membership will be clogged.Acccordingly the former PM's will have to wait-and some of them may never be honoured(LIz Truss springs to mind due to the shortage of her tenure).

As to Gordon Brown,I suspect he has been offered and refused both the garter and the thistle.As SS notes,there are no thistle vacancies at the moment.

[LoopyCrown3]

Gordon Brown got the Companion of Honour (CH) in the 2024 Birthday honours. I guess he refused both the Garter and Thistle so didn't become a Sir. So they offered him the CH. 

[LoopyCrown3]

I wonder if Baroness Scotland of Asthal could be a contender as she will soon step down as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Also the Chief of the Defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin KCB is stepping down in the autumn. Given he was the Lord High Constable of England coronation perhaps he could be a contender. 

[BREMENMURRAY]

Gordon Brown is following in the steps of the Scots Prime Ministers of the twentieth century none of whom received the Garter. Campbell Bannerman,Bonar Law and Ramsey Macdonald died soon after leaving office. Macmillan who classified himself as Scots  apparently declined and the Earl of Home got the Thistle instead

[malcolm davies]

Bremen,

              There have been 3 Prime Ministers who have had the Thistle-the 4th Earl of Aberdeen,the 5th Earl of Rosebery and the 14th Earl of Home.Aberdeen & Home we’re honoured before they became Prime Minister,Rosebery during his term in office.The only other Prime Minister to receive the honour was Sir Robert Menzies the Australian Prime Minister.The late Queen offered him the Garter or the Thistle-he chose the latter.

[BREMENMURRAY]

Aberdeen and Roseberry got both which does not happen these days apart from royalty.

[BREMENMURRAY]

23 April 2025 is here and no new appointments

[malcolm davies]

Whilst there are 4 vacancies,one of them only occurred on 6 January 2025.However the Crown does not seem to be in a hurry to fill vacancies and the delay in filling them seems to be getting longer.

Its pretty obvious that the appointments in  2023 were probably selections made by the late Queen rather than the King.

I have some criticisms of more recent appointments which appear to be of the left of centre types.And there are too many public servants who have been so honoured.

Lets take Lord Peach as an example.I know nothing of him as a person,but his service to the nation is nothing compared to the service of the wartime leaders and the defence force over which he presided was much smaller than any force in previous history.

The Crown now seems to be afraid to appoint hereditary peers.

[Guru]

I suspect that the Queen handed over responsibility of appointments to the Garter to the Prince of Wales in the last few years of her reign. I suggest that the 2023 appointments were indeed made by King Charles.

I think it is the king that has a negative attitude to hereditary peers. He would not even make his own brother one! He made him a life duke only.

[marquess]

This present monarch is likey to create no hereditary peerages amongst his won family. .A misplaced love for modernism seems to be his guiding rule.

[sven_me...@web.de]

The peerage is a thing of the past and your way of thinking too.

[marquess]

Hardly, monarchy is a tradition from the past, and based on an hereditary principle. How then is it at odds to expect the monarch to create his own sibling an hereditary duke when such creations have been standard throughout the history of the royal family? As to my way of thinking,  I am a traditionalist and a beliver in the hereditary principle, I feel no shame for that.

[sven_me...@web.de]

So you are not so much a supporter of democracy.