The Honours System: Then and Now

Last Weekend Jamaica celebrated another important patriotic holiday, this time it was National Heroes day which usually celebrated on the third Monday in October, the week leading up to that day is normally called National Heritage week is a time of celebration where we showcase the best of both historical and contemporary Jamaican culture, this period is the second most patriotic holiday period on the Jamaican calendar overshadowed only by the Emancipation-Independence ("Emancipendence") festival in the summer . National Heroes Day is famous for two things in particular the first of course as the name suggest has to do with our National Heroes, the big seven who among the most famous Jamaicans immortalised for all time, the second thing that Heroes Day is known for is the spectacular Kings House Parade followed by the handing out of National Awards by the Governor-General and this is where I want to zoom in on. These Honours and Awards handed out are part of the Jamaican honours system which was created in 1969 via the National Honours and Awards Act which was created to copy and replace the British Honours system, in order to better understand it let’s do a quick overview of the British System before moving on. The British are famous for their award of knighthoods and other titles of nobility, these awards and knighthoods fall into varying degrees. At the very top of this system is the Order of the Garter, founded in 1348 by King Edward III, this Order consist of the Monarch, the Prince of Wales and no more than 24 knights, other members of both the British Royal Family and foreign royal families are included as extra knights not counted among the 26, the Garter has the distinction of the being the oldest existing and most prestigious order of Chivalry in the World. Next comes the Order of the Thistle, the actual date of its founding is rather ambiguous as some sources claimed that it was founded in 1687, other sources trace it’s foundations back as early as 1540, it’s level precedence is also in doubt, Many Scots are of the view that the Thistle is the equivalent of the Garter however many outside Scotland place the Thistle lower in precedence, the Order of the Thistle is normally awarded to Scots or Scottish descended persons. The Order of the Bath falls next on the list, Originally founded as a military order in 1725 by King George I, it now consist of two distinct divisions, civil and military, both branches consist of three grades, Knights Grand Cross (GCB), Knights Commander (KCB) and Companions (CB). .

The Order of Merit was created in 1902 by King Edward VII was designed to award extraordinary achievements in science, the arts or even the military, this Order though it comes with no title is still highly coveted and consist of a limit of 24 members from all over the Commonwealth. The Order of St Michael and St George is one many Jamaicans should be familiar with since every Governor-General since independence has been a member , this Order was founded in 1818 and is used to honour persons who have served with distinction in the British Foreign service or in service to the Commonwealth. The next order on the list is the Royal Victorian Order, this award was founded by Queen Victoria and is the Queen’s personal gift to reward those who have served the Queen in a personal capacity, three of Jamaica’s six governors-general are members of this Order. And finally we have the Order of the British Empire, this order created in 1917 by King George V should be familiar to older generations of Jamaicans as many distinguished Jamaicans were inducted into it prior to the Honours and Awards Act, it consist of 5 classes, Knights Grand Cross (GBE), Knights Commander (KBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE) and Member (MBE), this Order consist of hundreds of members and is given to folks from all walks of life.

The Jamaican Honours System was created in 1969 as was said above in order to replace the “Colonial system”, the National Honours and Awards act originally created 4 Orders. The Order of National Hero is the Oldest and Highest honour, created for those who have served the people of Jamaica in a most distinguished fashion, many persons do not know that the concept of National Hero actually predates the creation of the Order, the first person so named was civil rights activist Marcus Garvey in 1964, later Morant Bay rebellion leaders Paul Bogle and George William Gordon were also given this designation, after the Order of National Heroes was formalised in 1969 four other persons, Sir Alexander Bustamante, Norman Manley, Samuel Sharpe and the legendary Maroon leader Nanny were added to the list. There have been proposals from time to time that more persons should be added to the list including cultural icons such as Bob Marley and Louise Bennett, the topic is still a controversial one to this very day. The Order of Merit was the second order created; this is more or less a "Jamaicanised" version of the British Order of Merit, it consists of no more than 15 living members and all members are styled as Right Honourable. The Order of Jamaica is possibly the most well-known Order in the honours system, it was created to be an equivalent to the Knighthood classes of the Orders of the Bath, St Michael and St George and the British Empire, although unlike those orders, members of the Order of Jamaica are awarded the style of Honourable (Hon) rather than Sir or Dame, this is mainly the fault of pro-republican elements in Jamaica’s political elite who claim that the use of such titles is too “colonial” even if the initials OJ fall behind it, this is stark contrast to other Caribbean countries such as Barbados, St Lucia and Antigua who have incorporated titles of knighthoods as part of their indigenous honours system with little fuss. The Final Order as was created in the Original Act is the Order of Distinction, this order of chivalry is divided into two classes, Commander (CD) and Officer (OD), this Order was created to equate with the lower non-knighthoods ranks of the Orders of the Bath, St Michael and St George and the British Empire. The National Honours and Awards act officially banned Jamaicans except the Governor-General from taking knighthoods from the British Government even though in truth it was the Jamaican Government and not the British who had recommended Jamaicans to receive such honours prior to that time, This ban does not apply to the Royal Victorian Order since it is the Queen’s personal gift with no political interference involved.

After 1969 two new awards were added, these are the Order of the Nation and the Order of Excellence. The Order of the Nation was created in 1973 when Florizel Glasspole was made Jamaica’s third Governor-General; the Prime Minister at the time Michael Manley was very pro-republican in his orientation and decided to create this new Order so as to compensate the Governor-General for not being knighted, he hoped that that a head of State who was not knighted by the Queen would make the transition to a republic easier, fortunately this never came to pass and after losing the 1980 elections the new Prime Minister Edward Seaga immediately recommended a knighthood for Glasspole. Regardless it was still a recognized part of the Jamaican honours system but limited only to Governors-General, that changed in 2002 when then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson decided to award himself the honour along with the style “Most Honourable” he also did the same for all former Prime Ministers and Governors-General, his excuse for doing so was that the title “Right Honourable” sounded too British and he wanted different title that sounded more Jamaican and so he created that style, this was of course a blatant lie, in truth the title “Most Honourable” is just as British in origin as “Right Honourable” , however it is used only by Marquises in British peerage and as such is very rare but not none existent. The order of Excellence was created in 2003 and is equivalent to the Order of the Nation but is awarded only to foreign heads of State and government; it currently has only three members Thabo Mbeki, former South African President, Jayaka Kikwete,President of Tanzania and His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain