Companion of Honour Recipients
Companion 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.
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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 to fulfill his ambition for a life in the army. He fought in various parts of the British Empire until in 1900 when he won the Conservative seat in Oldham in the general election. From here until 1929 he held various offices in British Parliament.
The 1930s saw fascism grow in strength throughout Europe with dictators such as Italy's Benito Mussolini, Germany's Adolf Hitler and Spain's Francisco Franco. When the UK and France declared war on Germany in 1939, Neville Chamberlain was British Prime Minister. On May 10, 1940 Hitler's forces invaded Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg in order to invade France. Chamberlain was widely blamed for the failed British invasion of Norway, although realistically Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty was largely to blame for the failure of the Norwegian Campaign. Chamberlain recommended the King should ask Churchill to succeed him as Prime Minister. He made a speech on 13 May: "You ask: 'What is our policy?' I will say: 'It is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalog of human crime.' That is our policy. You ask: 'What is our aim?' I can answer in one word: 'Victory! Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.'"
The United States officially entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The US's participation was excellent news to Churchill and after success on D-Day and as the Nazi forces were gradually forced back, the war in Europe gradually drew to a close. He lost the 1945 General Election by a landslide, lost again in 1950, but was re-elected as Prime Minister in 1951 despite receiving fewer votes than Labour. Due to deteriorating health he retired in 1955. He died at Hyde Park Gate, London, on January 24, 1965 at the age of 90. He had succeeded in the uniting of thought and deed. He had succeeded in uniting everyone in the common purpose, inspiring them with fortitude and strength to face whatever hardships that would have to be incurred in the process of first surviving and ultimately winning the war. His daughter Mary wrote to him on his death bed: "I owe you what every Englishman, woman, and child owes you - liberty itself."
As one of the most significant British politicians of the 20th century, Churchill remains one of the country's most widely recognized figures. He has been played by an almost incalculable number of actors on screen, but three of the most notable and acclaimed screen portrayals were by Robert Hardy in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) (which covers Churchill's life from 1929 to 1939), Albert Finney in The Gathering Storm (2002) (also set in the 1930s before he became Prime Minister) and Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour (2017) (set in May 1940).
As well as a politician, Churchill was also an author and a prolific artist, who painted over 500 canvases, exhibited at the Royal Academy and at Paris, and sold paintings.- Henry Newbolt is known for Father's Doing Fine (1952) and Alvin Purple (1976).
- 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 smith. After Hall's birth (he hated the name Thomas and never used it, even after he was knighted), the family moved back to Liverpool, where young Hall grew up. Hall Caine frequently took many trips to visit the Caine family on the Isle of Man.
He was apprenticed to an architect and surveyor and plied his trade as a surveyor while self-educating himself through wide reading. He became a lecturer and theatrical critic, which introduced him to some influential people such as actor Sir Henry Irving and author Bram Stoker, who dedicated Dracula (1931) to him. He became the secretary, factotum and nurse to Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the last years of the great poet's life.
Aside from a memoir of Rossetti that sold well, Caine's early endeavors in serious literature met with little success. However, when he abandoned literary criticism for romantic fiction (in the Walter Scott vein), he became popular. "Shadow of a Crime", an 1885 novel featuring a love triangle, was a best-seller. In 1887 he published a critical book about Samuel Taylor Coleridge that failed, but his return to fiction that same year with The Deemster (1917), a romance set in the Isle of Man, was a hit (a deemster is a judge on the Isle of Man).
In all, he published 15 romantic novels over 40 years. Many had themes influenced by his Christian socialist political sympathies. His popularity was immense, and his 1897 novel "The Christian" (later made into a film, The Christian (1915)) was the first novel to sell over a million copies in the United Kingdom. In August 1902, when King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra visited the Isle of Man, Caine was invited on board the royal yacht as the royal couple toured the island (the queen was a fan). He was a major celebrity in his own right, as well as a celebrated author.
During World War One he wrote propaganda articles urging the United States to join the fight against Germany and her allies. He declined a baronetcy in 1917 but accepted a knighthood, insisting he be styled Sir Caine Hall. After the Great War his popularity began to decline, as his style was considered old-fashioned. His return to fiction in 1921 with "The Master of Man: The Story of a Sin", another romance set in the Isle of Man, did not reach the level of popular success he was accustomed to and was poorly received by critics. He was derided as Victorian.
Many of his novels were made into movies during the silent era. "The Manxman" was turned into The Manxman (1929), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The last film made from a Hall Caine property was The Bondman (1929), also released in 1929. Such was the decline of his reputation and popularity that no sound film has ever been made from his works.
Caine is little remembered today, as his novels are considered badly written; the characterizations are fuzzy and one plot is much like the other. In 1931 G.K. Chesterton wrote his literary epitaph: "Bad story writing is not a crime. Mr. Hall Caine walks the streets openly, and cannot be put in prison for an anticlimax."
He died on August 31, 1931, at the age of 78, the same year that Chesterton dismissed him as a bad writer. He was the father of Sir Derwent Hall Caine, 1st Baronet (1891-1971), actor, publisher and Labour politician. - Actress
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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 Robert Stephens and to playwright Beverley Cross. Her marriage to Stephens ended in divorce in 1974. She was married to Cross until his death in 1999. She had two sons with Stephens, Chris Larkin and Toby Stephens who are also actors.
Maggie Smith's career began at the Oxford Playhouse in the 1950s. She made her film debut in 1956 as one of the party guests in Child in the House (1956). She has since performed in over sixty films and television series with some of the most prominent actors and actresses in the world. These include: Othello (1965) with Laurence Olivier, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), California Suite (1978) with Michael Caine and Jane Fonda, A Room with a View (1985), Richard III (1995) with Ian McKellen and Jim Broadbent, Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999) with Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Cher and Gosford Park (2001) with Kristin Scott Thomas and Clive Owen, directed by Robert Altman. Maggie Smith has also been nominated for an Oscar six times and won twice, for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978).
Smith later appeared in the very successful 'Harry Potter' franchise as the formidable Professor McGonagall as well as in Julian Fellowes' ITV drama series, Downton Abbey (2010) (2010-2011) as the Dowager Countess of Grantham.- John Jowett was born on 8 November 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).
- Stanley Bruce was born on 15 April 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 25 August 1967 in London, England, UK.
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Frederick Delius was born on 29 January 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 10 June 1934 in Grez-sur-Loing, Seine-et-Marne, France.- Margaret MacMillan was born on 23 December 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).
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Laurence Binyon is known for The Awakening (2011).- Joseph Lyons was born on 15 September 1879 in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia. He was married to Enid Burnell. He died on 7 April 1939 in Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- John Spender was born on 2 December 1935 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He has been married to Catherine since 2011. He was previously married to Carla Zampatti.
- Nancy Astor was born on 19 May 1879 in Danville, Virginia, USA. She was married to Waldorf Astor and Robert Gould Shaw II. She died on 2 May 1964 in Grimsthorpe Castle, Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, UK.
- James Garvin is known for Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950).
- Frederick Marquis was born on 23 August 1883 in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK. He died on 14 December 1964 in Arundel, West Sussex, England, UK.
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Henry Wood was born on 3 March 1869 in London, England, UK. He was married to Muriel Ellen Greatrex and Olga Michailoff. He died on 19 August 1944 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, UK.- Godfrey Huggins was born on 6 July 1883 in Bexley, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Blanche Elizabeth Slatter. He died on 8 May 1971 in Salisbury, Rhodesia.
- 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 Churchill, and while Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1945-1951) he established the National Health Service and India gained Independence from the British empire.
- H.D.G. Crerar was born in 1888 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He died on 1 April 1965 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- Julian Amery was born on 27 March 1919 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He was married to Catherine Macmillan. He died on 3 September 1996.
- Hastings Ismay was born on 21 June 1887 in Nainital, North-Western Provinces, British India [now Uttarakhand, India]. He died on 17 December 1965 in Broadway, Worcestershire, England, UK.
- Archibald Hall was born on 17 June 1924 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. He died on 16 September 2002 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK.