LONDON — Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Bee Gee Barry Gibb are among the celebrated citizens who have been selected for knighthood and other awards given in the name of Britain’s monarch.
Britain’s Cabinet Office publishes a list of the people receiving honors for merit, service or bravery twice a year: just before New Year’s Eve, and in June when Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday is officially observed.
The New Year’s Honors List made public late Friday revealed that Starr and Gibb, the oldest and last surviving of the brothers who made up the pop group the Bee Gees, have been tapped as knights, the highest honor, giving them the right to call themselves Sir in the United Kingdom.
Starr, 77, who already has an MBE (Member of the British Empire) granted to all the Beatles in 1965, is getting the knighthood 20 years after the only other surviving Beatle, Paul McCartney, 75, was knighted.
“It’s great!” Starr said of his knighthood in a brief message Friday. “It’s an honor and a pleasure to be considered and acknowledged for my music and my charity work, both of which I love. Peace and love. Ringo.”
Gibb said he was dedicating his knighthood to his late bandmates, twin brothers Robin Gibb, who died in 2012, and Maurice Gibb, who died in 2003.
“I want to acknowledge how responsible my brothers are for this honor,” said Gibb, 71. “It is as much theirs as it is mine.”
Also on the honors list is Michael Morpurgo, 74, the children’s author celebrated for War Horse. Actor Hugh Laurie, 58, who made a splash in the U. S. as Dr. Gregory House on House M.D. and already the possessor of an OBE (Officer of the British Empire), will get an upgrade to CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to drama.
Scores of politicians, scientists, renowned researchers, volunteers, dancers and actors also are on the honors list.
The honors process starts with…
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