Apart from the guy mentioned in yesterday's note and his playwriting colleagues Alan Bennett and Michael Frayn and a host of actors like Paul Scofield, another five who refused to accept a knighthood:
1. LS Lowry - painter
2. David Hockney - artist
3. Michael Faraday - chemist, experimenter, demonstrator, and the man who made electricity usable
4. Frederick Sanger - the only living double Nobel prizewinner, without his work we could not yet know the structures of basic proteins, let alone be able to sequence the human genome
5. Humphrey Lyttleton - jazz trumpeter, cartoonist, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
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2 comments:
What were their reasons for refusing to accept the knighthood?
Also, if Frederick Sanger had not made the discovery, someone else would have. Without his work, we would have someone else's work with the same discoveries. :)
A common reason is disgust with the monarchy and its tentacles, but different people have different reasons. Loads more people refuse "lower" honours too, like the MBE, CBE, etc. I think each year they should publish not just the list of those who accepted honours that year but also the full list of those who refused them. Instead the whole system is shrouded in secrecy and corruption.
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