On Wednesday the Queen gave a Luncheon for Members of the Order of Merit & the Circular includes the names of those who had “the honour of being invited”
I was delighted to see that Sir Tim Berners-Lee is now OM
I imagine that in the old days invitations would have been addressed simply to Mr & Mrs ---, or whatever the appropriate titles were
Not these days. Every ‘,’ & ‘and’ in the list of those attending really counts, means something to those who can read the code. Names linked by ‘and’ are together
I do not know whether members of the Order are simply invited to bring a guest or companion of their own, if they so wish, or if someone has the job of finding out who is the current ‘partner’ & addressing the invitation as appropriate.
Of the 19 current members of the Order who attended, 10 were clearly accompanied by their wife, 6 came alone (3 men, 3 women, as it happens), & the other 3 came with, respectively, a ‘Dr.’, a ‘Mr.’ and a ‘Ms.’ (the Palace still uses ‘.’ to indicate an abbreviation)
Not wishing to leap to any conclusions I checked the status of the 'Mr.'
Who’s Who duly confirms that Sir Michael Howard and Mr. Mark James became Civil Partners in 2006
All without any fuss or outrage whatsoever (as of course there should not be)
But to think that it is not all that long ago that anybody who had been divorced was not even allowed into the Royal Enclosure at the horse racing
If the OM can nominate their guest, are there any rules at all about whom they may choose?
This close interest in the details has suddenly become not just a way of passing idle moments; we are being noisily informed that the leader of the British National Party intends to go to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party as companion to a fellow party member who has an invitation by virtue of his membership of the elected London Authority
I fear that he is deluding himself if he believes that this will give him the opportunity to chat to the Queen about matters of immigration
Only a small number of guests are singled out to meet Her Majesty. The few hundred others there on the day may get to chat to another royal as they admire the flower beds, listen to the military band & nibble their cucumber sandwiches
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