NEW YEAR HONOURS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 69, 2 January 1946, Page 3

NEW YEAR HONOURS

LONGEST LIST OF PRESENT REIGN NEW ZEALAND PRIVY COUNCILLORS (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) LONDON, Dec. 31. Honours for the architects of Britain’s victory, both Service and civilian, are announced in the King’s New Year Honours List. It is the 19th honours list of his reign and the biggest in living memory, occupying 165 pages of the London Gazette. Mr Churchill, the chief architect, is awarded the Order of Merit. An official announcement from Buckingham Palace last July stated that on Mr Churchill’s resignation the King asked him to accept the Order of the Garter, the highest British order of chivalry, but Mr Churchill begged to be allowed to decline. It was then understood that he would he offered the Order of Merit which, as it carries no precedence or rank, he would be prepared to accept.

Paired with Mr Churchill as a recipient of the Order of Merit is Marshal of , the R.A.F. Lord Portal of Hungerford, who received a double honour in that he is also elevated from Baron to Viscount.

Among the civilians who played a vital part in victory is Mr Donald C. Bailey, inventor of the now famous Bailey Bridge, who receivel a knighthood. Three awards go to scientists associated with the development of atomic energy Wallace J. Akers, Director of Atomic Bomb Research, becomes a knight, and a C.B.E. is awarded to Dr .Rudolf Ernst Peierls, scientific consultant on atomic bomb research, and Dr. Franz Eugen Simon, Reader in Thermodynamics .at Oxford University.

Lady Louis Mountbatten, who heads a long list of awards to Red Cross workers, has been *created Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, a rare distinction. New Dames of the British Empire include the actress, Edith Evans, and the Chief Controller of the A.T.S., Mrs Whateey. The famous pianist, Benno Moiseiwitsch, who was awarded the C.8.E., has already raised nearly £15,000 for Mrs Churchill’s Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. The principal awards are as fol lows: Viscounts Field-Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Field-Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, former Supreme Commander in the Mediterranean and GovernorGeneral Designate of Canada. Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cunningham of Handhope. Field-Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Portal of Hungerford. Lord Southwood, newspaper proprietor. Barons Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, former Commander of the British Pacific Fleet.

Marshal of the R.A.F. Sir Arthur Tedder, Deputy Allied Supremo Commander. Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Tovey. Field-Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, formerly Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean. Colin Frederick Campbell, President of the British Bankers’ Association. John Percival Davies, Lancashire cotton manufacturer and member of the Independent Labour Party. Philip Albert Inman, chairman Chai’ing Cross Hospital. Order of Merit Winston Churchill. Lord Portal of Hungerford. Companion of Honour

Professor Archibald Vivian Hill, Secretary of Royal Society, for Scientific Services.

Privy Councillors

John Albert Beasley, Australian Minister of Defence. Sir Travers Humphreys, Judge, King's Bench Division. James Lorimer Islev, Canadian Minister of Finance. William Joseph Jordan, New Zeaand High Commissioner in Britain. Walter Nash, New Zealand Minister of Finance and Customs. Louis Stephen St. Laurent, Canadian Minister of Justice and AttorneyGeneral. Knights - Major - General Ralph Ainsworth, director of medical services of the joint war organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John. Wallace John Akers, director of the Atomic Bomb Research, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Donald Coleman Bailey, inventor of the Bailey Bridge. William Thomas Bailey, president of the Newspaper Society. William George Verdon Smith, chairman of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. Stanley Unwin, publisher.

The award of the Order of Merit to Mr Churchill Avas made the occasion by all neAVspapers to praise Britain’s Avartime leader. It is recalled that he refused all other honours, including the Garter. The honour brings him into line Avitli other great Avar Prime Ministers of modern times —the late Lord George Mr Lloyd George, however, received the honour Avhen he Avas still Premier. Only one other statesman who has been Prime Minister has belonged to the Order. This A\ r as A. J., afterward Earl Balfour, Avho become O.M. in 1916. Lord Portal’s accession to the company of O.M’s is regarded as a tribute to his superlative Avork as Chief of the Air Staff through very nearly five years of war. The R.A.F. now has tAvo O.M. members, Sir Cyril NeAvall being the other, against the Army’s one and the Navy’s one —Lord ChetAvode and Lord Chatfield.

There was soir.e surprise that Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris Avas not offered the honour, but he received promotion. The honours list is the longest in. history. Another is being published on January 9.