6. On July 19, 2018, the so-called State of Israel decreed that it is 'the nation-state of the Jewish people'
See the Knesset press release "Full text of Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People", dated July 19, 2018, which gives a "complete, unofficial translation of the final version of Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People, passed by the Knesset on July 19, 2018":
https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/News/PressReleases/Pages/Pr13978_pg.aspx
According to clauses 1.b) and 1.c) of that translation, "The state of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it actualizes its natural, religious, and historical right for self-determination.", and "The actualization of the right of national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.", respectively. One of the sponsors of the bill, Knesset member Avi Dichter, offers the following, slightly different, translations of those clauses:
(B.) The State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, in which it exercises its natural, cultural, religious and historic right to self-determination.
(C.) The exercise of the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is exclusive to the Jewish people.
[https://avidichter.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/leom_law_en_press_18.7.18.pdf]
See also the other Knesset press releases "Joint Committee approves Nation-State Bill for final plenary vote", dated July 18, 2018, and "Knesset passes Jewish nation-state bill into law", dated July 19, 2018:
https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/News/PressReleases/Pages/Pr13977_pg.aspx
https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/News/PressReleases/Pages/Pr13979_pg.aspx
According to the former, a Knesset "joint committee of the House Committee and the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee"
revised a clause which stated that “Each resident of Israel, without regard to his religion or nationality, shall be entitled to strive for the preservation of his culture, heritage, language and identity,” and that “The State may permit a community, including the members of a single religion or the members of a single nationality, to establish separate community settlements”
The new version of the clause determines that “The state sees developing Jewish settlement as a national interest and will take steps to
encourage, advance, and implement this interest.”
and according to the latter,
Two clauses in the bill were revised. The Diaspora clause reads, “The state will act in the Diaspora to maintain the connection between the state and the Jewish people.” The original version said that the connection would be maintained among “the Jewish people, wherever they are.”
A clause that could have permitted one religious group to bar another from living in their community was replaced with one saying that “The state sees developing Jewish settlement as a national interest and will take steps to encourage, advance, and implement this interest.”
Mr. Dichter's translation came to my attention
via the
Wikipedia page "Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People", whose "References" section links to numerous sources dealing with the matter:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Law:_Israel_as_the_Nation-State_of_the_Jewish_People
Among those sources is the opinion piece "The legitimacy of Israel’s nation-state bill (I): comparative constitutionalism", by Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, dated December 10, 2014, available at the Kohelet Policy Forum's (K.P.F.'s) website:
https://en.kohelet.org.il/publication/the-legitimacy-of-israels-nation-state-bill-i-comparative-constitutionalism
That article gives useful background to the decree in question, above all with respect to the notion of national self-determination. (Although published years before the enactment in question occurred, that opinion piece is still relevant to the final text; hence Prof. Kontorovich's recapitulation of his main points in the opinion piece "Get Over It—Israel Is the Jewish State", dated July 19, 2018, published originally in
The Wall Street Journal (available behind a paywall):
https://www.wsj.com/articles/get-over-itisrael-is-the-jewish-state-1532039000
and also available at the K.P.F.'s website:
https://en.kohelet.org.il/publication/get-over-it-israel-is-the-jewish-state
The only noteworthy respect in which the former article is out of date is its treatment of the question of official languages.)
Labels: Confessional State, Jews, State of Israel
7. Some items regarding the two premier British chivalric orders
7.1 The Order of the Garter as the mother order of court chivalry
See p. 11 (22 in the document reader) in the text of the speech by James Johnston (Williamite English Envoy Extraordinary to The then-Elector of Brandenburg) in
An account of the ceremony of investing his Electoral Highness of Brandenburgh with the order of the Garter, perform'd at Berlin on the 6th of June, 1690, London, 1690:
http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=BLL01017684096&vid=BLVU1&lang=en_US&institution=BL
or go straight hither:
http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100027415381.0x000001#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1301%2C-135%2C4464%2C2686
or hither:
https://books.google.com.au/books?vid=BL:A0020755743&redir_esc=y
Also available in other formats here:
http://ota.ox.ac.uk/tcp/headers/A24/A24980.html
(The HTML version is here:
http://downloads.it.ox.ac.uk/ota-public/tcp/Texts-HTML/free/A24/A24980.html)
See also here:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A24980.0001.001
or go straight hither:
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A24980.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext
For a biography of Johnston, see "JOHNSTON, James (1655-1737), of Orleans House, Twickenham, Mdx.", by Richard Harrison, at
The History of Parliament:
http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/johnston-james-1655-1737
Labels: Order of the Garter
7.2 Getting back up to date with the two premier British chivalric orders
Over the four or so years to early- to mid-last-year, I lost track of developments in The Order of the Garter and The Order of the Thistle. In the next two items I aim to rectify that oversight.
7.2.1 Recent additions to, and losses from, The Order of the Garter
The last time when I noted that The Order of the Garter had its full complement of twenty-four Knights Companions or Ladies Companions who are neither Royal-Family nor Stranger Knights nor Ladies was on Thursday, April 23, 2009:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-st-georges-day.html
Unfortunately, the webpage which I seem to have used as my source for that observation is no longer available, but you can still verify that I was correct. Begin with the royal.uk Press Release "Appointments to the Order of the Garter 2005":
https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-garter-2005
That webpage lists twenty-four non-Royal-Family/-Stranger members of the Order (three new appointees and twenty-one previous ones); they were, in chronological order (dated to April 23 in the years mentioned), with only abbreviated titles and neither styles nor post-nominal letters):
1. The Duke of Grafton (1976) 2. Lord Richardson (1983) 3. Lord Carrington (1985) 4. The Duke of Wellington (1990) 5. Lord Bramall (1990) 6. Sir Edward Heath (1992) 7. Lord Ridley (1992) 8. Lord Sainsbury (1992) 9. Lord Ashburton (1994) 10. Lord Kingsdown (1994) 11. Sir Ninian Stephen (1994) 12. Sir Edmund Hillary (1995) 13. Lady Thatcher (1995) 14. Sir Timothy Colman (1996) 15. The Duke of Abercorn (1999) 16. Sir William Gladstone (1999) 17. Lord Inge (2001) 18. Sir Antony Acland (2001) 19. The Duke of Westminster (2003) 20. Lord Butler (2003) 21. Lord Morris (2003) 22. Lady Soames (2005) 23. Lord Bingham (2005) 24. Sir John Major (2005)
Only two Garter Knights (and no Ladies) seem—unless I've missed any Stranger Knights—to have died between then and St. George's Day 2009: Sir Edward died on July 17, 2005, according to the
Encyclopædia Britannica article "Sir Edward Heath":
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Heath)
(and his set of Garter insignia was delivered up on November 22, 2005, according to
the Court Circular) and Sir Edmund died on January 11, 2008, according to the same encyclopedia's article "Sir Edmund Hillary":
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edmund-Hillary
(and his set of Garter insignia was delivered up on April 2, 2008, the day of the Service of Thanksgiving for his Life, according to
the Court Circular. (Judging by the same source, Lords Richardson and Carrington, Sir Ninian, Lady Thatcher, and Sir Timothy were each not present at the Garter Day—the Monday in Royal Ascot week—activities of at least one year from 2005 to 2009, inclusive of both, but they were still alive as of Garter Day 2009, as I'll soon show. (Garter Day fell on June 13, 19, 18, 16, and 15 in 2005, ’06, ’07, ’08, and ’09, respectively.)))
Over the same period (that from St. George's Day 2005 to St. George's Day 2009, inclusive of both), only two other non-Royal-Family/-Stranger Garter Knights (and no Ladies) were appointed, namely Lord Luce and Sir Thomas Dunne; see Notice No. 510023, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105),
The London Gazette, Issue No. 58679, p. 6383, Friday, April 25, 2008 (but the appointments in question are to be dated April 23, 2008):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-58679-510023
(A digital version of the full text of p. 6383 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/58679/page/6383
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 58679 is available here, with p. 6383 being p. 1 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/58679
See also the royal.uk Press Release "Appointment to the Order of the Garter", dated April 22, 2008:
https://www.royal.uk/appointment-order-garter
That also mentions The Duke of Cambridge's appointment, but His Royal Highness is, of course, a Royal Knight Companion; over the period in question, two other Royal-Family Knights (and no Ladies) were also appointed, namely The Duke of York and Prince Edward: See the royal.uk Press Release "Appointments to the Order of the Garter 2006", dated April 23, 2006:
https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-garter-2006)
With two deaths and two new appointments, and so no change in the number of members, over the period in question, it seems that there were indeed twenty-four non-Royal/-Stranger Garter Knights or Ladies as of St. George's Day 2009, and they were those of St. George's Day 2005, minus Sir Edward Heath and Sir Edmund Hillary, plus Lord Luce and Sir Thomas Dunne. And that was still the case as of Garter Day 2009 (June 15 that year), when, according to
the Court Circular, nineteen of those Knights or Ladies were present for that Day's activities, and the five absentees—Lords Richardson and Carrington, Sir Ninian Stephen, Lady Thatcher, and Sir Timothy Colman—were still alive then, as we'll soon see.
Since Garter Day ’09, there have been twelve deaths in the Order; I mentioned five of those deaths in the following issues of my "Notes", collectively:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2014/07/notes-tuesday-may-6-2014-thursday-july.html (item 1.2)
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2012/04/notes-wednesday-april-4-tuesday-april.html (item 4)
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2011/04/notes-tuesday-april-12-monday-april-18.html (item 8)
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2010/04/st-georges-day-coming-up-and-theres.html
(Those deaths can also be verified by reading the references to the late Garter Knights' or Lady's respective obsequies or returns of sets of Garter insignia (or both) in
the Court Circular; see the issues of March 10 and May 19, 2010, March 3, 2011, May 9, 2012, July 17, 2012, and March 12, 2015.) The other seven Garter Knights or Ladies to have died since Garter Day ’09 were
- Lord Kingsdown, whose Memorial Service occurred on February 6, 2014 and whose Garter insignia were delivered up on March 20 of that year
- The Duke of Wellington, whose Garter insignia were delivered up on December 8, 2015
- The Duke of Westminster, whose Garter insignia were delivered up on December 13, 2016
- Sir Ninian Stephen, whose Garter insignia were delivered up on May 23, 2018
- Sir William Gladstone, whose Funeral occurred on April 13, 2018, and whose Garter insignia were delivered up on June 12 of that year
- Lord Carrington, for whom a Service of Thanksgiving occurred on 31. ult.
Over the same period, no new Royal-Family Garter Knights nor Ladies, two new Stranger Knights (and no Ladies), and nine new other Knights or Ladies have been appointed. The two new Stranger Knights appointed were
- The King of Spain, apparently on July 12, 2017 (the following Instagram post, dated July 13, 2017, refers to the appointment occurring "Yesterday":
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWfZo_ugUYo)
(Wednesday, July 12, 2017 was the first official day of a three-day British State Visit by The King and Queen of Spain (though Their Majesties arrived on the previous Tuesday, according to the Court Circular). See the royal.uk article "The Spanish State Visit" dated July 12 (sic, though the article deals with all three days of the Visit), 2017, in which I found that Instagram post embedded (though it isn't embedded there anymore):
https://www.royal.uk/spanish-state-visit)
Of the nine new other Garter Knights or Ladies, I've already blogged about five of them, namely Lords Boyce and Phillips in item 2.1 here:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2011/05/notes-tuesday-april-19-monday-may-2.html
(though for completeness see Notice No. 1354859, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105),
The London Gazette, Issue No. 59775, p. 8393, Thursday, May 5, 2011 (but the appointments in question are to be dated April 23, 2011):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-59775-1354859
A digital version of the full text of p. 8393 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59775/page/8393
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 59775 is available here, with p. 8393 being p. 1 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59775)
Lord Stirrup in item 2 here:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2013/05/notes-wednesday-april-24-monday-may-20.html
and Lady Manningham-Buller and Lord King in item 1.2 here:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2014/07/notes-tuesday-may-6-2014-thursday-july.html
The remaining four new appointees are
- Lord Shuttleworth and Sir David Brewer, effective from April 23, 2016. See Notice No. 2543492, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105), The London Gazette, Issue No. 61589, p. 11764, May 23, 2016 (but the appointments in question are to be dated April 23, 2016):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2543492
(A digital version of the full text of p. 11764 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/61589/page/11764
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 61589 is available here, with p. 11764 being p. 2 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/61589)
See also the royal.uk Press Release "Appointments of Knights Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter", dated May 18, 2016:
https://www.royal.uk/appointments-knights-companion-most-noble-order-garter
- Lady Mary Fagan and Lord Brookeborough, announced April 23, 2018. See Notice No. 3013396, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105), The London Gazette, Issue No. 62266, p. 7308, April 23, 2018:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3013396
(A digital version of the full text of p. 7308 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62266/page/7308
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 62266 is available here, with p. 7308 being p. 2 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62266)
See also the royal.uk Press Release "Appointments to the Order of the Garter", dated April 23, 2018:
https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-garter
It seems, then, that the current Knights Companions and Ladies Companions of the Garter are (again with abbreviated titles and with neither styles nor post-nominal letters, and the dates in the years given are April 23 unless stated otherwise):
Royal-Family Knights and Ladies: 1. The Queen (November 11, 1947; Sovereign of the Order upon becoming Queen, February 6, 1952) 2. The Duke of Edinburgh (November 19, 1947) 3. The Prince of Wales (July 26, 1958, presumably becoming a Knight of the Order by the very fact of becoming Prince of Wales) 4. The Duke of Kent (October 9, 1985) 5. The Princess Royal (1994, though the exact date seems disputed—either April 23 or June 13) 6. The Duke of Gloucester (1997) 7. Princess Alexandra (2003) 8. The Duke of York (2006) 9. Prince Edward (2006) 10. The Duke of Cambridge (2008)
(
s. v. "The Royal Family and the Order of the Garter" on the webpage "Orders of Chivalry" at the website of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle:
https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/about-st-georges/royal-connection/orders-of-chivalry/
Or see
the previously-cited 2005 royal.uk Press Release, which mentions the current Royal-Family Knights and Ladies appointed in or before 2003, and other Press Releases there announce the Royal Knights and Lady appointed in and after ’03. (See the appendix to this post for links to all available Garter-related royal.uk Press Releases.) And
the Court Circular's Garter Day issues name the Royal participants in the activities of those Days. (I've already mentioned Garter Day dates of 2009 and earlier; those since 2009 are June 14 in 2010, 13 in ’11, 18 in ’12, 17 in ’13, 16 in ’14, 15 in ’15, 13 in ’16, and 18 last year. (Garter Day activites were cancelled in 2017—see the article "Queen to perform 'dressed down' State Opening of Parliament, wearing hat instead of crown for first time in 43 years", by Hannah Furness, dated April 27, 2017, downloaded from the London
Daily Telegraph's website:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/27/queen-perform-dressed-state-opening-parliament-wearing-hat-instead/))
The Duke of Edinburgh was the only Royal-Family Knight or Lady not to participate in the Garter Day activities last year, but His Royal Highness is, of course, alive and well.)
Stranger Knights and Ladies (except for the two last-mentioned appointees, I have only been able to find the year, not the exact date, of appointment): 1. Grand Duke John of Luxembourg (1972) 2. The Queen of Denmark (1979) 3. The King of Sweden (1983) 4. King John Charles I. of Spain (1988) 5. Princess Beatrice of The Netherlands (1989) 6. The Emperor of Japan (1998) 7. The King of Norway (2001) 8. The King of Spain (July 12, 2017) 9. The King of The Netherlands (October 23, 2018)
(See the article "Order of the Garter full list", dated June 16, 2008, downloaded from the website of the London
Times:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/order-of-the-garter-full-list-8ltqldhl6hb
Or see "
Garter Banner Location (updated October 2018)" (bold and underline in the original), available at the webpage "Garter Banner List" at the official website of St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle:
https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/about-st-georges/history/the-order-of-the-garter/garter-banner-list/
or go straight hither:
https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Garter-Banner-list-Oct-2018-2.pdf)
Other Knights and Ladies (April 23 of the stated year of appointment): 1. Lord Bramall (1990) 2. Lord Sainsbury (1992) 3. Lord Ashburton (1994) 4. Sir Timothy Colman (1996) 5. The Duke of Abercorn (1999) 6. Lord Inge (2001) 7. Sir Antony Acland (2001) 8. Lord Butler (2003) 9. Lord Morris (2003) 10. Sir John Major (2005) 11. Lord Luce (2008) 12. Sir Thomas Dunne (2008) 13. Lord Boyce (2011) 14. Lord Phillips (2011) 15. Lord Stirrup (2013) 16. Lady Manningham-Buller (2014) 17. Lord King (2014) 18. Lord Shuttleworth (2016) 19. Sir David Brewer (2016) 20. Lady Mary Fagan (2018) 21. Lord Brookeborough (2018)
(In addition to obtaining that list by removing the subsequently-deceased members from and adding the subsequently-appointed members to the 2005 list, one can corroborate it by referring to the nineteen-member list of participants in
the Court Circular's account of last year's Garter Day activities and confirming that they, The Duke of Abercorn, and Lord Inge are (though the latter two were absent that day) still alive.)
(I have also consulted the
Wikipedia article "
List of current Knights and Ladies of the Garter" and
its "View history" page.)
Labels: Alan Brookeborough, Charles Shuttleworth, David Brewer, Mary Fagan, Order of the Garter
7.2.2 Recent additions to, and losses from, The Order of the Thistle
The last time when I noted that there were no vacancies in The Order of the Thistle was Wednesday, December 2, 2009:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2009/12/hm-queens-new-appointments-to-order-of.html
Unfortunately, I didn't mention the source for that observation, but it can be verified by a similar procedure to that used in the item before the present one. Begin with the royal.uk Press Release "New appointments to the Order of the Thistle", dated November 30, 2003 (apparently incorrectly, given that the year of the new appointments mentioned there seems to have been 2004):
https://www.royal.uk/new-appointments-order-thistle
That document names the following fifteen Thistle Knights and one Thistle Lady who were or are neither Royal-Family nor Stranger members of the Order (the names are here abbreviated, and with date of appointment (November 30 unless otherwise stated) but neither styles nor post-nominal letters):
1. Lord Weymss (April 12, 1966) 2. The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry (1978) 3. Lord Elgin (1981) 4. Lord Thomson (1981) 5. Lord Airlie (November 29, 1985) 6. Sir Iain Tennant (November 29, 1986) 7. Lord Arbuthnott (November 29, 1996) 8. Lord Crawford (November 29, 1996) 9. Lady Marion Fraser (November 29, 1996) 10. Lord Macfarlane (November 29, 1996) 11. Lord Mackay (November 27, 1997) 12. Lord Wilson (2000) 13. Lord Sutherland (2002) 14. Sir Eric Anderson (2002) 15. Lord Steel (2004) 16. Lord Robertson (2004)
(That Press Release mentions the death of Lord Younger in 2003 and Sir Donald Cameron in 2004; according to
the Court Circular, the former's Thistle insignia were delivered up on June 25, 2003 and the Service of Thanksgiving for his Life occurred on April 26, 2003, and the latter's Thistle insignia were delivered up on October 27, 2004 and his Memorial Service occurred on October 15, 2004, so that Press Release presumably dates to not much later than October 2004, nor much earlier.) From when that Press Release was issued until when I blogged about the Order having a full membership, four Thistle Knights (and no Ladies) died, judging by
the Court Circular:
- Sir Iain Tennant's Thistle insignia were delivered up on July 24, 2007
- The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry's Thistle insignia were delivered up on February 22, 2008, and his Memorial Service occurred on December 12, 2007
- Lord Wemyss' Memorial Service occurred on April 4, 2009
- Lord Thomson's Thistle insignia were delivered up on July 8, 2009, and the Service of Celebration for his Life and Work occurred on January 13, 2009
There were four new appointments over the same period; I've already blogged about the November 30, 2009 appointments of Lords Hope and Patel (though for completeness, see Notice No. 986932, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105),
The London Gazette, Issue No. 59258, p. 20801, Tuesday, December 1, 2009:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-59258-986932
(A digital version of the full text of p. 20801 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59258/page/20801
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 59258 is available here, with p. 20801 being p. 1 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59258)
Or see Notice No. 991717, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105),
The London Gazette, Issue No. 59262, p. 21165, Monday, December 7, 2009:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-59262-991717
(A digital version of the full text of p. 21165 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59262/page/21165
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 59262 is available here, with p. 21165 being p. 1 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/59262))
and the other two appointments were those of Lord Cullen and then-Mr. Garth Morrison on November 30, 2007—see Notice No. 403362, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Change of Name and/or Arms" (
sic) (Notice Code: 1107),
The London Gazette, Issue No. 58529, p. 17439, Friday, November 30, 2007:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-58529-403362
(A digital version of the full text of p. 17439 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/58529/page/17439
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 58529 is available here, with p. 17439 being p. 1 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/58529)
See also the royal.uk Press Release "Appointments to the Order of the Thistle 2007", dated November 30, 2007:
https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-thistle-2007
It seems, then, that the Order did indeed have its full complement of sixteen members on St. Andrew's Day 2009, and that was still the case the next time Thistle-related Holyrood Week activities occurred (that is, on July 15, 2010; see
the Court Circular of that date. (In previous years, such activities occurred on July 2, 2003, July 7, 2006, and July 2, 2008.)) (Lords Elgin, Arbuthnott, and Crawford were each absent on July 15, 2010, but, as we'll soon see, they were alive at the time.) Indeed, the Order seems still to have had its full membership on May 29, 2012, the date of the royal.uk Press Release "New appointments to the Order of the Thistle":
https://www.royal.uk/new-appointments-order-thistle-0
(also available, in a slightly different format, at the same website under the headline "The Duke of Cambridge is appointed Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle by The Queen", with the same date:
https://www.royal.uk/duke-cambridge-appointed-knight-most-ancient-and-most-noble-order-thistle-queen)
Since the date of those two Press Releases, three Knights and one Lady of the Thistle have died, judging by
the Court Circular:
- Lord Arbuthnott's Memorial Service occurred on September 14, 2012, and his Thistle insignia were delivered up on November 14, 2012
- Sir Garth Morrison's Memorial Service occurred on June 21, 2013, and his Thistle insignia were delivered up on March 5, 2014
- the Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Lady Marion Fraser occurred on February 9, 2017, and her Thistle insignia were delivered up on July 3, 2018; Lord Sutherland's Thistle insignia were delivered up on the latter date, too, and the Service of Thanksgiving for his Life occurred on October 16, 2018
Over the same period, five new Thistle Knights—one of them a Royal-Family Knight, and none Strangers—and no Ladies have been appointed; the Royal Knight was, as you might have noticed earlier, The Duke of Cambridge, whose appointment I logged in item 14 here:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2012/07/notes-tuesday-june-26-monday-july-16_16.html
(see also my comment in the combox there) and the other four Knights were
- Lords Home and Smith, whose appointments I noted in item 13 here:
https://cardinalpole.blogspot.com/2014/03/notes-tuesday-january-11-monday-march_17.html
(and those two appointments seem to have brought the Order's membership back up to its full complement of sixteen, judging by the sixteen relevant participants in the Thistle-related Holyrood Week activities of 2014 (indeed, that seems to have continued to be the case when such activities occurred in 2016, given that Lord Crawford, though absent, was still alive; see the Court Circular for July 3, 2014 and July 7, 2016. (Thistle-related Holyrood Week activites occurred on July 5 in 2012.)))
- The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, appointment dated November 30, 2017. See Notice No. 2937641, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105), The London Gazette, Issue No. 62160, p. 2, December 29, 2017:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2937641
(A digital version of the full text of p. 2 is available here (though the notice in question is dated December 30, 2017 there):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62160/page/2
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 62160—printed on January 2, 2018—is available here (though the notice in question is dated December 30, 2017 there, too):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62160
Another version of that notice appears on p. N2 of The London Gazette's Issue No. 62150, December 30, 2017 (Supplement No. 1, containing the U.K.'s New Year 2018 Honours List):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62150/supplement/N2
And that issue's full text (apparently printed on Friday, December 29, 2017) is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62150/)
- Sir Ian Wood, appointed June 9, 2018. See Notice No. 3040260, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105), The London Gazette, Issue No. 62318, p. 10308, June 9, 2018:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3040260
(A digital version of the full text of p. 10308 is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62318/page/10308
and a digital version of the full text of Issue No. 62318—printed on June 11, 2018—is available here, with p. 10308 being p. 2 in your document reader:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62318
Another version of that notice appears on p. B2 of The London Gazette's Issue No. 62310, June 9, 2018 (Supplement No. 1, Friday, June 8, 2018, containing the U.K.'s Queen's Birthday 2018 Honours List):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62310/supplement/B2
And that issue's full text is available here (p. B2 is p. 2 in your document reader):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62310/)
It seems, then, that the current Knights and Ladies of the Thistle are (their respective names here abbreviated, with neither styles nor titles, and the date of appointment is November 30 unless another date is given):
Royal-Family Knights and Ladies: 1. The Queen (Sovereign of the Order since February 6, 1952; I have not been able to confirm that Her Majesty was not admitted to the Order before becoming Queen; it's perhaps not unlikely that The Queen did join the Order in the previous reign, given that "At the time of the coronation[of George VI.] - highly appropriate for a Queen[ Consort of that King] of Scottish birth - the King also appointed her the first Lady of the Thistle ever created." (my square-bracketed interpolations,
s. v. "Honours" in the royal.uk
Royal Encyclopaedia article "Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother":
https://www.royal.uk/queen-elizabeth-queen-mother
The exact date of Her late Majesty's admission to the Order was May 11, 1937, judging by the second full notice on p. 3074 of the Supplement (No. 34396) of Tuesday, May 11, 1937 to
The London Gazette of Friday, May 7, 1937 (Issue No. 34395):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34396/supplement/3074
(The full text of that Supplement is available here:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34396/data.pdf)))
2. The Duke of Edinburgh (April 21, 1952) 3. The Prince of Wales (February 11, 1977) 4. The Princess Royal (2000) 5. The Duke of Cambridge (May 29 or June 25, 2012)
(See the royal.uk Press Releases "Appointments to the Order of the Thistle", dated November 30, 2002:
https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-thistle
or "New appointments to the Order of the Thistle", dated (incorrectly, as we saw earlier) November 30, 2003:
https://www.royal.uk/new-appointments-order-thistle
and "New appointments to the Order of the Thistle", dated May 29, 2012:
https://www.royal.uk/new-appointments-order-thistle-0
or "The Duke of Cambridge is appointed Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle by The Queen", dated May 29, 2012:
https://www.royal.uk/duke-cambridge-appointed-knight-most-ancient-and-most-noble-order-thistle-queen
and Notice No. 1621276, Notice Type "State", Sub-Type "Honours and Awards" (Notice Code: 1105),
The London Gazette, Issue No. 60195, p. 12473, June 25, 2012 (printed Friday, June 29, 2012):
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-60195-1621276)
Stranger Knights or Ladies: None. (According to the
Encyclopædia Britannica article "The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle", "The only foreigner admitted has been King
Olaf V of Norway." (hyperlink in the original):
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Most-Ancient-and-Most-Noble-Order-of-the-Thistle)
Other Knights (currently no Ladies): 1. Lord Elgin (1981) 2. Lord Airlie (November 29, 1985) 3. Lord Crawford (November 29, 1996) 4. Lord Macfarlane (November 29, 1996) 5. Lord Mackay (November 27, 1997) 6. Lord Wilson (2000) 7. Sir Eric Anderson (2002) 8. Lord Steel (2004) 9. Lord Robertson (2004) 10. Lord Cullen (2007) 11. Lord Hope (2009) 12. Lord Patel (2009) 13. Lord Home (2013) 14. Lord Smith (2013) 15. The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry (2017) 16. Sir Ian Wood (June 9, 2018)
(Instead of verifying that list by removing the subsequently-deceased Knights and Lady from and adding the subsequently-appointed Knights to the 2004 list, one could verify it by consulting the July 6, 2018 (last year's date of Thistle-related Holyrood Week activities) issue of
the Court Circular and confirming that the non-Royal participants and the only two non-Royal absentees—Lords Elgin and Crawford—are still alive.)
(I have also consulted the
Wikipedia article "
Order of the Thistle" and
its "View history" page.)
Labels: Ian Wood, Order of the Thistle, Richard Buccleuch
Reginaldvs Cantvar
Feast of
St. Andrew Corsini, Bishop, Confessor,
A.D. 2019
Appendix: Links to all available Garter- or Thistle-related royal.uk Press Releases:
Garter-related:
Thistle-related:
Labels: Order of the Garter, Order of the Thistle
