AWARDS IN BRITAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 January 1946, Page 6

AWARDS IN BRITAIN

O.M. FOR MR. CHURCHILL

LONDON, January 1

Honours for the architects of Great Britain’s victory, both service and civilian, are announced in the Kings New Year Honours List. It is the nineteenth honours list of the present reign, and the biggest in living memory, occupying 165 pages of the London Gazette.

Mr. Churchill is awarded the Order of Merit. An official announcement from Buckingham Palace last July stated, on Mr. Churchill’s resignation, that the King had asked him to accept membership of the Order of the Garter, the highest British order of chivalry, but Mr. Churchill begged to be allowed to decline. It was then understood he would be offered the Order of Merit, which, as it carries no precedence or rank, he would be prepared to accept. 1 Among the civilians who played a vital part in the victory is Mr. D. C. Bailey, inventor of the now famous Bailey bridge, who receives a knighthood. Three awards go to scientists associated with the development of atomic energy. Mr. Wallace J. Akers, director of atomic bomb research, becomes a knight, and the C.B.E. is awarded to Dr. Rudolf Ernst Peierls, scientific consultant on atomic bomb research, and to Dr. Franz Eugen Simon, reader in thermodynamics at Oxford University.

Lady Louis Mountbatten, who heads a long list of awards to Red Cross workers, is created a Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, a rare distinction. The famous pianist, Benno Moiseiwitsch, who is awarded the C.B.E. has already raised nearly £15,000 for Mrs. Churchill’s Red Cross Aid to Russia Fund. The principal awards are:-—

ORDER OF MERIT (0.M.)

Mr. Winston Churchill.

Marshal of the Royal Air. Force Lord Portal of Hungerford, retiring Chief of the Air Staff, who is also created a viscount.

VISCOUNTS Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cunningham of Handhope. First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff. Field - M arshal Lord Alenbrook, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Field-Marshal the Hon. Sir Harold Alexander, Governor-General designate of Canada. Field-Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery. Lord Southwood, newspaper proprietor and publisher. BARONS Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Tovey. Field-Marshal Sir Henry Maitland Wilson. Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Tedder,‘the new Chief of the Air Staff. Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, formerly Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet. Mr. Colin Frederick Campbell, president of the British Bankers’ Asosociatidn. Mr. John Percival Davies, Lancashire cotton manufacturer and a member of the Independent Labour Party. Mr. Philip Albert Inman, chairman of the Charing Cross Hospital. PRIVY COUNCILLORS Mr. John Albert Beasley, Australian Minister of Defence; Sir Travers Humphreys, Judge of the King’s Bench Division; Mr. James Lorimer Ilsley, Canadian Minister of Finance; Mr. Louis St. Laurent, Canadian Minister of Justice.

COMPANION OF HONOUR (C.H.)

Professor Archibald Vivian Hill, secretary of the Royal Society of Scientific Services.

ORDER OF THE BATH Knight Grand Cross (G.C.8.). — Admiral Sir John Henry Dacres Cunningham; Admiral Sir Henry Ruthven Moore; General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam; General Sir Bernard Charles Paget; General Sir Thomas Riddell Webster; Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas; Air Chief Marshal Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt; Sir Cyril William Hurcomb, DirectorGeneral of the Ministry of War Transport; the Maharaja of Mysore, Sir Sri Jayci Bahadur; Sir Arthur William Street, now Acting-Perman-ent Secretary to the Office of the Control Commission in Germany and Austria. Knights Commander (K.C.8.).-— Vice-Admiral Harold Thomas Coulthard Walker; Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Nye. ORDER OF ST. MICHAEL AND ST. GEORGE ' Knights Grand Cross (G.C.M.G.) — Sir Harry Batterbee, formerly United Kingdom High Commissioner to New Zealand; Sir Mark Young, Governor of Hong Kong. Knights Commander (K.C.M.G.) — Mr. William John Haley, Director uf the 8.8. C.; Mr. Peter Alexander Clutterbuck , Assistant-U nder- Secretary of State to the Colonial Office; Professor Charles Kingsley Webster, Foreign Office adviser on United Nations Affairs. ROYAL VICTORIAN ORDER Knight Commander (K.C.V.O.) — Sir Stewart Duke-Elder. ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE Knights Grand Cross (G.B.E.) — ! Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Somjerville; General Sir William Joseph

Slim; Sir Edward Appleton, secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. . Dames Commanders (D.B.EJ.—Miss Edith Mary Evans (Mrs. George Booth), the actress; Mrs. Leslie Violet Whateley, Director of Auxiliary Texritorial Service. Knights Commander (K.8.E.). — Lieutenant-General Frederick Arthui Browning; Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham; Mr. Eric St. John Bamford, Director-General of the Ministry of Information. AIR FORCE MARSHALS LONDON, January 1. Air Chief Marshal Sir William Sholto Douglas and Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur* Travers Harris have been promoted to the rank of marshal of the Royal Air Force with effect from to-day. , _ During the war Sir Sholto Douglas was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Coastal Command, and Sir Arthur Harris was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Bomber Command. LIST FOR FIJI " SUVA, January 1. The New Year honours for Fiji include: KBE. —Lala Sukuna, C.M.G.; the Hon. J. F. Nicoll, Colonial Secretary.. C.8.E.: Mr. T. W. Alport Barker, proprietor of the Fiji “Times and Herald.”

Military awards are:— C.8.E.: Brigadier G. Dittmer. 0.8. E.: Commander H. A. Hill, R.N.R. M;B.E.: Captain J. P. Brodie, N.Z.E.F. and Cantain R. Kable. The MiB.E. is also awarded to two Fijians and the King’s Police Medal to a native constable.