Brits: Knighthood no longer involves a ceremony with the queen?

Followup on this thread. Bono was just made a “Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire,” but the ceremony did not involve his kneeling to be tapped with a sword, and the queen wasn’t even there. :confused:

As far as I’m aware, knighthood still does involve this ceremony. But Bono is not a subject of the Queen and is therefore not eligible to participate in it. Likewise he cannot be referred to as “Sir”.

Couple of points relative to this:

  1. Bono, like other people not subjects of QE2 (phrased carefully, because a Canadian or a New Zealander, although not themselves British, would not fall under this), received only an honorary recognition as KBE. Not that there’s a huge amount of difference between being honored as a full-fledged (British/Commonwealth) member of the OBE and an honorary (non-British/Commonwealth) member of it.

  2. The OBE is a catchall way of honoring people who have in some way contributed to British society, economy, worldwide actions for ideals endorsed by the U.K., etc. Not all members of the OBE are knights (or “dames,” the female equivalent). The order is divided into military and civil divisions, each with five ranks, in ascending order:
    [ul][li]Member (uses MBE after name)[/li][li]Officer (OBE)[/li][li]Commander (CBE)[/li][li]Knight Commander, or for women: Dame Commander (KBE / DBE)[/li][li]Knight (or Dame) Grand Cross (GBE)[/ul][/li]Only the top two ranks are knighthoods, and then only for subjects of the Queen (excluding honorary knighthoods like Bono’s)

The OBE has almost as exclusive admission requirements as a bus terminal!

Source:Wikipedia – but it accords with everything I’ve read over the years about the OBE.

Wow! I never thought I’d be able to add to Poly on a question about British royalty!

With regards to the OP’s question, though, I believe that HRH Charles sometimes stands in for HM his mum in doing the whole knighting thing.

In other words, he’s a sub dubber.