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 countinue 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: Queen Elizabeth II

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	87
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	88
5 (282)	Dame Janet Baker	CH, DBE	Opera singer	31 December 1993	88
6 (287)	The Lord Owen	CH, PC	Politician	11 June 1994	83
7 (289)	Sir David Attenborough	OM, GCMG, CH, CVO, CBE	Broadcaster; naturalist	30 December 1995	95
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	84
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	77
12 (298)	Peter Brook	CH, CBE	Director	13 June 1998	97
13 (299)	Sir John Major	KG, CH, PC	Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom	31 December 1998	79
14 (300)	Bridget Riley	CH, CBE	Artist	31 December 1998	91
15 (305)	John de Chastelain	CC, CMM, CH, CD	Canadian Army officer; diplomat	31 December 1998	84
16 (316)	James Lovelock	CH, CBE, FRS	Environmentalist	31 December 2002	102
17 (317)	Dan McKenzie	CH, FRS	Geophysicist	14 June 2003	80
18 (318)	The Lord Hannay of Chiswick	GCMG, CH	Diplomat	14 June 2003	76
19 (320)	Dame Judi Dench	CH, DBE	Actress	11 June 2005	87
20 (321)	Sir Ian McKellen	CH, CBE	Actor	31 December 2007	82
21 (323)	The Lord Howard of Lympne	CH, QC, PC	Politician	11 June 2011	80
22 (324)	The Lord Young of Cookham	Bt, CH, PC	Politician	20 September 2012	80
23 (325)	The Lord Coe	CH, KBE, Hon FRIBA	Politician; athlete; organiser of 2012 Olympics	29 December 2012	65
24 (326)	Peter Higgs	CH, FRS	Physicist	29 December 2012	92
25 (327)	The Lord Strathclyde	CH, PC	Politician	7 January 2013	62
26 (328)	The Lord Campbell of Pittenweem	CH, CBE, PC, QC	Politician	15 June 2013	80
27 (329)	Sir Nicholas Serota	CH	Curator	15 June 2013	76
28 (331)	The Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve	CH, CBE, FBA, FRS, FMedSci	Philosopher	31 December 2013	80
29 (332)	Dame Maggie Smith	CH, DBE	Actress	14 June 2014	87
30 (333)	The Lord Clarke of Nottingham	CH, QC, PC	Politician	22 July 2014	81
31 (336)	Lady Mary Peters	LG, CH, DBE, DStJ	Athlete	1 January 2015	82
32 (337)	The Lord Young of Graffham	CH, PC, DL	Politician	1 January 2015	90
33 (339)	The Lord Woolf	CH, PC, FBA, FMedSci	Judge	12 June 2015	89
34 (341)	Sir Roy Strong	CH, FRSL	Art historian; museum director	1 January 2016	86
35 (343)	The Lord Smith of Kelvin	KT, CH	Businessman	11 June 2016	77
36 (344)	The Baroness Amos	LG, CH, PC	Politician; diplomat	11 June 2016	68
37 (345)	George Osborne	CH, PC	Politician; former Chancellor of the Exchequer	4 August 2016	50
38 (347)	Sir Richard Eyre	CH, CBE	Director	31 December 2016	79
39 (348)	Dame Evelyn Glennie	CH, DBE	Musician	31 December 2016	56
40 (349)	Sir Alec Jeffreys	CH, FRS	Geneticist	31 December 2016	72
41 (353)	Sir Mark Elder	CH, CBE	Conductor	17 June 2017	74
42 (354)	Dame Beryl Grey	CH, DBE	Dancer	17 June 2017	94
43 (355)	Sir Paul McCartney	CH, MBE	Musician	17 June 2017	79
44 (356)	J. K. Rowling	CH, OBE	Author	17 June 2017	56
45 (357)	Dame Stephanie Shirley	CH, DBE, FREng	Entrepreneur; philanthropist	17 June 2017	88
46 (358)	Delia Smith	CH, CBE	Cook; author	17 June 2017	80
47 (359)	The Lord Stern of Brentford	CH, FRS, FBA	Economist	17 June 2017	76
48 (361)	The Lord Bragg	CH, FRS, FBA, FRSL	Broadcaster	30 December 2017	82
49 (362)	Lady Antonia Fraser	CH, DBE, FRSL	Author	30 December 2017	89
50 (363)	Margaret MacMillan	CC, CH	Historian	30 December 2017	78
51 (364)	Richard Henderson	CH, FRS, FMedSci	Biologist	9 June 2018	76
52 (365)	Dame Kiri Te Kanawa	ONZ, CH, DBE, AC	Opera singer	9 June 2018	78
53 (366)	Margaret Atwood	CC, OOnt, CH, FRSC, FRSL	Author	29 December 2018	82
54 (367)	The Lord McLoughlin	CH, PC	Politician	10 September 2019	64
55 (368)	Sir Elton John	CH, CBE	Musician	28 December 2019	75
56 (369)	Sir Keith Thomas	CH, FBA, FLSW, FRHistS	Historian	28 December 2019	89
57 (370)	Sir Paul Smith	CH, CBE, RDI	Fashion designer	10 October 2020	75
58 (371)	Sir David Chipperfield	CH, CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA	Architect	31 December 2020	68
59 (372)	Sir Paul Nurse	CH, PRS, FMedSci, HonFREng, HonFBA, MAE	Geneticist	31 December 2021	73
60 (373)	The Lord Field of Birkenhead	CH, PC, DL	Politician	31 December 2021	79
61 (-)	Vacant following the death of Doug Anthony, on 20 December 2020.
62 (-)	Vacant following the death of Sir Michael Somare, on 26 February 2021.
63 (-)	Vacant following the death of Baroness Williams of Crosby, on 12 April 2021.
64 (-)	Vacant following the death of Lord Rogers of Riverside, on 18 December 2021.
65 (-)	Vacant following the death of Sir Harrison Birtwistle, on 18 April 2022.

Honorary members

Member number	Name	Post-nominals	Occupation	Date of appointment	Age
1 (261)	Amartya Sen	CH, FBA	Economist	11 May 2000	88

• 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