Companion of Honour Recipients
by Sylviastel | created - 18 Jun 2014 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicCompanion of Honour is one of Britain's highest honors even above Knighthood or Damehood. Only 65 living recipients of this Honour at a given time.
1. Winston Churchill
Writer | Matinee Theater
Born in Blenheim Palace, the residence of his grandfather, the 7th Duke of Marlborough. His father was the Duke's third son, Lord Randolph Churchill. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was the daughter of an American financier.
After passing through famous English public schools such as Harrow, he went on ...
2. Henry Newbolt
Writer | Father's Doing Fine
Henry Newbolt is known for Father's Doing Fine (1952) and Alvin Purple (1976).
3. Hall Caine
Writer | The Eternal City
Novelist and dramatist Hall Caine, though largely forgotten now, was a hugely popular writer in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. Born Thomas Henry Hall Caine on May 14, 1853, in Runcorn, Cheshire, England, his father was a Manx Man who moved to Liverpool, where he apprenticed as a ship's ...
4. Maggie Smith
Actress | Gosford Park
One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...
5. John Jowett
Writer | There Was a Young Lady
John Jowett was born on November 8, 1921 in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, UK. He is a writer, known for There Was a Young Lady (1953), All Aboard (1958) and The Betty Driver Show (1952).
7. Stanley Bruce
Writer | Give Me Action
Stanley Bruce was born on April 15, 1883 in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was a writer, known for Give Me Action (1930). He was married to Ethel Dunlop Anderson. He died on August 25, 1967 in London, England, UK.
8. John Haldane
Self | Myth Hunters
9. Frederick Delius
Soundtrack | Crush
Frederick Delius was born on January 29, 1862 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Crush (2001), A Village Romeo and Juliet (1992) and The Yearling (1946). He was married to Helene Jelka Rosen. He died on June 10, 1934 in Grez-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne, France.
10. Margaret MacMillan
Writer | Paris 1919: Un traité pour la paix
Margaret MacMillan was born on December 23, 1943 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is a writer, known for Paris 1919: Un traité pour la paix (2009), CBC News Network with Andrew Nichols (2012) and The Sunday Programme (1994).
12. Joseph Lyons
Joseph Lyons was born on September 15, 1879 in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia. He was married to Enid Burnell. He died on April 7, 1939 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
13. John Spender
Self | The Point of Origin
John Spender was born on December 2, 1935 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He has been married to Catherine since 2011. He was previously married to Carla Zampatti.
14. Nancy Astor
Self | Royal Cavalcade
Nancy Astor was born on May 19, 1879 in Danville, Virginia, USA. She was married to Waldorf Astor and Robert Gould Shaw II. She died on May 2, 1964 in Grimsthorpe Castle, Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, UK.
15. James Garvin
Writer | Armstrong Circle Theatre
James Garvin is known for Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950).
16. Arthur Mann
17. Frederick Marquis
Self | The General Election Results
Frederick Marquis was born on August 23, 1883 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK. He died on December 14, 1964 in Arundel, West Sussex, England, UK.
18. Henry Wood
Self | Calling the Tune
Henry Wood was born on March 3, 1869 in London, England, UK. He was married to Muriel Ellen Greatrex and Olga Michailoff. He died on August 19, 1944 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, UK.
19. Godfrey Huggins
Self | A Queen Is Crowned
Godfrey Huggins was born on July 6, 1883 in Bexley, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Blanche Elizabeth Slatter. He died on May 8, 1971 in Salisbury, Rhodesia.
20. Clement Attlee
Self | Film Fanfare
Clement Attlee was one of Britain's most significant political figures. He was the leader of Britain's Labour Party from 1935-1955 and Deputy Prime Minister of the UK during the wartime coalition against Nazi Germany (1940-45). He won a landslide victory in the 1945 general election, defeating ...
21. H.D.G. Crerar
H.D.G. Crerar was born in 1888 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He died on April 1, 1965 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
22. Julian Amery
Self | Churchill
Julian Amery was born on March 27, 1919 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He was married to Catherine Macmillan. He died on September 3, 1996.
23. Ernest Brown
Self | Trauma: Life in the E.R.
24. Hastings Ismay
Self | Krymskaya konferentsiya
Hastings Ismay was born on June 21, 1887 in Nainital, North-Western Provinces, British India [now Uttarakhand, India]. He died on December 17, 1965 in Broadway, Worcestershire, England, UK.
25. Archibald Hall
Archibald Hall was born on June 17, 1924 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. He died on September 16, 2002 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK.
26. George Gibson
Self | The Glory of Their Times
George Gibson was born on July 22, 1880 in London, Ontario, Canada. He died on January 25, 1967 in London, Ontario, Canada.
27. Vita Sackville-West
Writer | A Note of Explanation
Victoria Mary Sackville-West was born on 9th March 1892 at Knole in Kent, her family's ancestral home. Her family was both aristocratic, (they held the title of Earl of Dorset), and literary. Two of her ancestors, Thomas Sackville (1536-1608), and Charles Sackville (1638-1706) were distinguished ...
28. Walter De La Mare
Writer | Tales of Tomorrow
Walter De La Mare was born on April 25, 1873 in Charlton, Kent, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Tales of Tomorrow (1951), Shades of Darkness (1983) and Post Tenebras Lux (2017). He was married to Elfrida Ingpen. He died on June 22, 1956 in Twickenham, London, England, UK.
29. David Cecil
Self | XIV Olympiad: The Glory of Sport
David Cecil was born on April 19, 1902 in Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He died on January 1, 1986 in Cranborne, Dorset, England, UK.
30. Stafford Cripps
Self | The Balance
Stafford Cripps was born on April 24, 1889 in London, England, UK. He was married to Isobel Swithinbank. He died on April 21, 1952 in Zurich, Switzerland.
31. Robert Gordon Menzies
Self | The Queen in Australia
Robert Gordon Menzies was born on December 20, 1894 in Jeparit, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Pattie Maie Menzies. He died on May 15, 1978 in Malvern, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
32. Sidney George Holland
Self | A Queen Is Crowned
33. Herbert Morrison
Self | This Week
Herbert Morrison was born on January 3, 1888 in London, England, UK. He died on March 6, 1965.
34. E.M. Forster
Writer | Howards End
E.M. Forster was born on January 1, 1879 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Howards End (1992), A Room with a View (1985) and The Machine Stops (2009). He died on June 7, 1970 in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, UK.
35. Benjamin Britten
Soundtrack | Moonrise Kingdom
Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, UK. He was a composer and writer, known for Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Lobster (2015) and The Machine (2013). He died on December 4, 1976 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England, UK.
36. Ian Fraser
Self | A History of the World
37. R.A. Butler
Self | Reputations
R.A. Butler was born on December 9, 1902 in Attock, India now Pakistan. He was married to Mollie Montgomerie Courtauld and Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld. He died on March 8, 1982 in Great Yeldham, Essex, England, UK.
38. W. Somerset Maugham
Writer | Quartet
Popular British novelist, playwright, short-story writer and the highest-paid author in the world in the 1930s, Somerset Maugham graduated in 1897 from St. Thomas' Medical School and qualified as a doctor, but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays. During World War I he...
39. Henry Moore
Art_department | The Pythoness
Spencer Moore was born on July 30th, 1898 in Castleford, Yorkshire, England. He was an English sculptor and artist. Moore is known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures usually of the female body and other public works of art, many of which are located around the world. He founded the ...
40. Arnold Toynbee
Self | See It Now
Arnold Toynbee was born on April 14, 1889 in London, England, UK. He died on October 22, 1975 in York, North Yorkshire, England, UK.
41. Thomas Beecham
Soundtrack | The Red Shoes
Thomas Beecham was born on April 29, 1879 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is known for The Red Shoes (1948), Atonement (2007) and The Tales of Hoffmann (1951). He was married to Shirley Hudson, Betty Humby-Beecham and Utica Celestia Welles. He died on March 8, 1961 in London, England, UK.
42. Osbert Sitwell
Writer | A Place of One's Own
Osbert Sitwell was born on December 6, 1892 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for A Place of One's Own (1945), Mystery and Imagination (1966) and Between the Wars (1973). He died on May 4, 1969 in Montegufoni, Italy.
43. Kenneth Clark
Writer | Civilisation
Kenneth Clark was born on July 13, 1903 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Civilisation (1969), Carved in Ivory (1976) and The Lively Arts (1969). He was married to Nolwen de Janzé and Elizabeth Macgregor Martin. He died on May 21, 1983 in Hythe, Kent, England, UK.
44. Tunku Abdul Rahman
Self | Pemasyhuran Kemerdekaan Tanah Melayu
Tunku Abdul Rahman was born on February 8, 1903 in Alor Setar, Kedah, British Malaya [now Malaysia]. He was married to Sharifah Rodziah binti Saiyid Alwi Barakbah. He died on December 6, 1990 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
45. Selwyn Lloyd
Self | This Week
Selwyn Lloyd was born on July 28, 1904 in West Kirby, Wirral, Cheshire [now Merseyside], England, UK. He died on May 17, 1978 in Preston-Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
46. Paul Henri Spaak
Self | Menschen und Mächte
Paul Henri Spaak was born on January 25, 1899 in Schaerbeek, Brussels-Capital, Belgium,. He was married to Simonne Deal and Margaret Malevez. He died on July 31, 1972 in Braine-l'Alleud, Walloon Brabant, Belgium.
47. Patrick Blackett
Self | The Brian Connell Interview
Patrick Blackett was born on November 18, 1897 in Kensington, London, England, UK. He died on July 13, 1974 in London, England, UK.
48. Emanuel Shinwell
Self | Reputations
Emanuel Shinwell was born on October 18, 1884 in Spitalfields, London, England, UK. He died on May 8, 1986.
49. Graham Greene
Writer | The Fallen Idol
Graham Greene was one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century and his influence on the cinema and theatre was enormous. He wrote five plays and almost all of his novels, including "Brighton Rock", "The Ministry of Fear" and "The End of the Affair", have been brought to the screen. A superb ...
50. Mortimer Wheeler
Actor | Men, Women and Clothes
Mortimer Wheeler was born on September 10, 1890 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Men, Women and Clothes (1957), Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? (1952) and An Evening with... (1968). He was married to Kim Norfolk (née Collingridge), Mavis Cole and Tessa Verney. He died on July 22, ...
51. Douglas Houghton
Self | This Question of Pressures
52. Arthur Bryant
53. Harold Holt
Self | Vietnam Report: P.M. Visits Australian Troops
Harold Edward Holt, prime minister of Australia, was born on 5 August 1908 at Stanmore, NSW, Australia; elder son of Thomas James Holt, schoolteacher, and his wife Olive May, née Williams, both Australian born.
In the 1950s he took part in four meetings of the C.P.A. and was chairman (1952-55) of ...
54. Patrick Gordon Walker
Self | Panorama
Patrick Gordon Walker was born on April 7, 1907 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK. He was married to Audrey Muriel Rudolf. He died on December 2, 1980 in London, England, UK.
55. Adrian Boult
Music_department | Lawrence of Arabia
Adrian Boult was born on April 8, 1889 in Chester, Cheshire, England, UK. He is known for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Scoop (2006) and Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018). He died on February 23, 1983 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, UK.
56. John McEwen
Self | Toki no hito
John McEwen was born on March 29, 1900 in Chiltern, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Mary Eileen Byrne and Anne Mills McLeod. He died on November 20, 1980 in Toorak, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
57. John Barbirolli
Soundtrack | Bronson
John Barbirolli was born on December 2, 1899 in Bloomsbury, London, England, UK. He is known for Bronson (2008), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and Husbands and Wives (1992). He was married to Evelyn Rothwell and Marjorie Parry. He died on July 29, 1970 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.
58. A.P. Herbert
Writer | House by the River
English novelist and essayist Alan Patrick Herbert was born in London, England, in 1890. An Oxford graduate, he served in the Royal Navy in World War I and took part in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, which resulted in heavy casualties and a resounding defeat for the Allied forces. He ...
59. Kuan Yew Lee
Self | The Story of English
Kuan Yew Lee was born on September 16, 1923 in Singapore. He was married to Kwa Geok Choo. He died on March 23, 2015 in Outram, Singapore.
60. Frederick Ashton
Actor | Cinderella
The founding father of British ballet, he developed the "English style" of classical dancing. He saw Anna Pavlova dance in 1917, which inspired him to a lifetime in ballet. He studied in London with Léonide Massine and Marie Rambert. He joined the Vic-Wells ballet, which later became the Royal ...
61. Sybil Thorndike
Actress | The Prince and the Showgirl
This distinguished theatrical tragedienne will be remembered forever if only for the fact George Bernard Shaw wrote his classic "Saint Joan" work specifically for her. Her over six-decade career allowed for a gallery of sterling, masterful portrayals, both classic and contemporary, performing all ...
62. Charles H. Best
Self | Who Sheds His Blood
63. Arthur Bliss
Composer | Things to Come
Arthur Bliss was born on August 2, 1891 in London, England, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for Things to Come (1936), Seven Days from Now (1957) and Christopher Columbus (1949). He was married to Gertrude Hoffmann. He died on March 28, 1975 in London, England, UK.
64. Joseph Luns
Self | To Unveil a Star
Joseph Luns was born on August 28, 1911 in Rotterdam. He was married to Lia van Heemstra. He died on July 17, 2002 in Brussels, Belgium.
65. Peter Medawar
Self | The Levin Interviews
Peter Medawar was born on February 28, 1915 in Petrópolis, Brazil. He died on October 2, 1987 in Camden, London, England, UK.
66. Jean Monnet
Self | CBS Reports
Jean Omer Marie Gabriel Monnet was a French entrepreneur, diplomat, financier, administrator, and political visionary. An influential supporter of European unity, he is considered one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Jean Monnet has been called "The Father of Europe" by those who see ...
67. Arnold Goodman
Self | The Richard Dimbleby Lecture
Arnold Goodman was born on August 21, 1913. He died on May 12, 1995.
68. Herbert Howells
Self | Omnibus
Herbert Howells was born on October 17, 1892 in Lydney, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He died on February 23, 1983 in London, England, UK.
69. John Piper
Production_designer | Theatre Night
John Piper was born on December 13, 1903 in Epsom, Surrey, England, UK. He was a production designer and costume designer, known for Theatre Night (1957), Music for You (1951) and The Best Laid Schemes (1962). He was married to Myfanwy Piper and Eilenn Holding. He died on June 28, 1992 in Fawley ...
70. Duncan Sandys
Self | This Week
Duncan Sandys was born on January 24, 1908 in Manor House, Sandford Orcas, Dorset, England, UK. He was married to Marie-Claire Schmitt and Diana Churchill. He died on November 26, 1987 in London, England, UK.
71. Bernard Leach
Self | Omnibus
73. William Whitelaw
Self | Thatcher: The Downing Street Years
William Whitelaw was born on June 28, 1918 in Nairn, Scotland, UK. He was married to Celia Sprot. He died on July 1, 1999 in Penrith, Cumbria, England, UK.
74. Quintin Hogg
Self | Camera Three
Quintin Hogg was born on October 9, 1907 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Camera Three (1955), Viewpoint (1959) and This Week (1956). He was married to Deirdre Shannon and Mary Martin. He died on October 11, 2001 in London, England, UK.
75. Max Perutz
Self | The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
Was held as a prisoner war in a Canadian camp during World War II.
76. Lord William Morris
Self | OnePeople: The Celebration
77. John Diefenbaker
Self | The Bob McLean Show
John George Diefenbaker was born in Neustadt, Ontario, to William Thomas Diefenbaker and Mary Florence Bannerman. He had one younger brother, Elmer Clive Diefenbaker. Throughout most of his early career, Diefenbaker served in the Canadian Army during World War I, but he left due to injuries. In ...
78. Frederick Elwyn Jones
Self | Forty Minutes
Frederick Elwyn Jones was born on October 24, 1909 in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK. He was married to Pearl Binder. He died on December 4, 1989 in Kemp Town, Brighton, Sussex, England, UK.
79. Edward Short
Self | Election 74
80. Malcolm Fraser
Self | The Norman Gunston Show
Malcolm Fraser was born on May 21, 1930 in Toorak, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was married to Tamie Fraser. He died on March 20, 2015 in Victoria, Australia.
81. John Gielgud
Actor | Arthur
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer Laurence Olivier and other ...
82. Barbara Wootton
Self | Thinking Aloud
Barbara Wootton was born on April 14, 1897 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK. She was married to George Wright and Jack Wootton. She died on July 11, 1988 in Nutfield, Surrey, England, UK.
83. Denis Healey
Self | Denis Healey: The Best Prime Minister Labour Never Had?
Denis Healey was born on August 30, 1917 in Mottingham, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Edna Healey. He died on October 3, 2015 in Alfriston, Sussex, England, UK.
84. Michael Tippett
Soundtrack | Akenfield
Michael Tippett was born on January 2, 1905 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and composer, known for Akenfield (1974), New Year (1991) and The Midsummer Marriage (1984). He died on January 8, 1998 in London, England, UK.
85. Peter Thorneycroft
Self | TV Eye
86. Victor Pasmore
Self | The Visual Scene
87. Edward Boyle
Self | Reputations
88. Frederick Sanger
Self | Face to Face: Fred Sanger
Frederick Sanger was born on August 13, 1918 in Rendcomb, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was married to Margaret Joan Howe. He died on November 19, 2013 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
89. Ninette de Valois
Actress | The Female Swindler
It has been rightly suggested that Dame Ninette de Valois is one of the most important women of the century. It was due to her drive and ambition that the modern English ballet was created. In that respect she changed history single handed. Born in Ireland, young Ninette (her stage name was her ...
90. Peter Carrington
Self | Thatcher: The Downing Street Years
Lord Peter Carrington was born in 1919. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and was inducted into the House of Lords in 1940 as a hereditary peer. He served in World War II. After the war, he got active in politics, serving as a junior minister in the Ministry of Agriculture, then the Ministry of...
91. Lucian Freud
Actor | Much Too Shy
Freud is the grandson of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In 1933, the year the National Socialists came to power, he emigrated to England with his family. Freud attended the Central School of Art and Goldsmith's College in London and the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in Dedham from ...
92. Steven Runciman
Steven Runciman was born on July 7, 1903. He is known for Mastermind (1972), Secret Lives (1995) and Crusades (1995). He died on November 1, 2000.
93. Sacheverell Sitwell
Self | Edith Sitwell
Sacheverell Sitwell was born on November 15, 1897 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was married to Georgia Doble. He died on October 1, 1988 in Towcester, Northamptonshire, England, UK.
94. Pierre Trudeau
Writer | Reason Over Passion
Pierre Trudeau was born Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau on October 18, 1919 in Montreal, Quebec. He was the son of Charles-Émile Trudeau and Grace Elliott. Trudeau had an older sister and a younger brother, Suzette and Charles Jr.
Trudeau's father died when Pierre was 15. After that, ...
95. Hugh Casson
Actor | A Hundred Years Old
Hugh Casson was born on May 23, 1910 in 4 Grossfield Road, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for A Hundred Years Old (1938), Evil Under the Sun (1982) and ABC Weekend Specials (1977). He was married to Margaret Macdonald Troup. He died on August 15, 1999 in London, England, UK.
96. Philip Larkin
Writer | On the Margin
English poet. His father Sydney was City Treasurer of Coventry. Philip was educated at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. By the age of 16 he was already having poetry published in the school magazine, The Coventrian. In 1940 he went to St. John's College, Oxford, to study English. On graduating (...
97. Keith Joseph
Self | The London Programme
Keith Joseph was born on January 17, 1918 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. He was married to Yolanda Victoria Sheriff and Hellen Louise Guggenheimer. He died on December 10, 1994 in London, England, UK.
98. Sydney Brenner
Self | Imagined Worlds
Sydney Brenner was born on January 13, 1927 in Germiston, Gauteng, South Africa. He was married to May Covitz Balkind. He died on April 5, 2019 in Singapore.
99. Peter Scott
Writer | Vanishing Wilderness
Peter Scott was born on September 14, 1909 in London, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Vanishing Wilderness (1974), Look (1955) and Wild Wings (1965). He was married to Phillipa Scott and Elizabeth Jane Howard. He died on August 29, 1989 in Bristol, England, UK.
100. Norman Tebbit
Self | People, Politics & Planes
Norman Tebbit was born on March 29, 1931 in Enfield, Middlesex, England, UK. He was previously married to Margaret Tebbit.
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